American Girls and American Girl: History Mystery, American Girl: Girls from Other Lands Series

Oh inspiration of my childhood though I did not know it yet. If you want to start getting into history just go with the classic American Girl.

If you want some darker themes go for The Girls from Many Lands as they discuss colonization, harassment, and the Indian Revolution in a child friendly manner but still ends tragically.

The History Mysteries series is a great blend of the two genres and has a few implied adult themes such as The Circle of Fire being dedicated to the monstrosity that is the Ku Klux Klan. 

Dear America, Dear Canada and The Royal Diaries

Dear America, and Dear Canada are perfect for more day to day implications of living in the turn of the century. In fact, they made me more prepared for AP US History than other people since it introduced things like the labor movement, and industrial boarding schools and all those subjects. The Canada ones did not help with AP US History, but I feel more knowledgable about Canada and see how interesting their history is. Additionally, I only realized this on a reread but no book goes without at least one death of a family member or friend. There is so much death here. Also, I have to give a shout out to Dear America’s One Eye Laughing, The Other Eye Weeping for portraying multiple suicides, homocides, a teen pregnancy, and the word “bitch”. I thought it was pretty impressive for a lower school book, but also necessary if you’re going to portray the horror that is the Holocaust.

The Royal Diaries introduces some amazing royal queens like Janahanara and Nzhinga long before I read Rejected Princesses or any non fiction and are simply lovely to get into some fictional insight to what they may have experienced being future rulers.

Sisters of Quantock Hills by Ruth Elwin Harris

This quartet inspired by the gorgeous paintings that are viewed on the covers are meticulously researched novels of UK life from 1916 to pre WWII, following the Purcells sisters and their neighbors, the Mackenzies. The Mackenzies, a minister and his family are the proto-guardians to the Purcells after the death of their mother (their father long gone) and thus follows their lives. It is beautiful in that it feels like you’ve stepped back in time. It’s quiet, the atmosphere lush yet historical events keep enfolding. But not so dramatically as we are all living in historical events right now but it doesn’t feel so. The same here, it follows their lives, their dreams and loves and troubles from feeling artistic burnout, the push-pull between love and career, PTSD, shellshock and isolation. It’s a great read.

The Girls of Lighthouse Lane by Erika Tamar

Another quartet written in the turn of the century of four friends living in a small whaling town in Massachusettes. Like above, it is very quaint focusing on small town life and the lives of the girls as they approch adulthood (teenagehood in modern perspective) while dealing with minor historical events like the end of the whaling industry, suffrage, scarlet fever etc. However, this a series for lower schoolers, and so it does not go so into political events. But there is a distinct modern girlism that fits with the period as none of them aspire to stay at home (Well one does at first), they all show signs of being ready to enter the new age, and follow their independence and their dreams, be it an artist in the big city of Boston or begin courting.

Saddles, Stars and Stripes by Deborah Kent

If you know someone who likes horses and historical fiction than this is the book series for them. It is for lower schoolers, offering them a glimpse into such historical events like the Civil War and the Gold Rush while also explaining horse terms and different breeds if they didn’t know them already. I don’t see any more to say on this as it’s been years since I’ve read it and don’t see it any libraries anymore but again, for anyone who likes horses and history they’d like this book series.

Tyranny of Petticoats (J. Anderson Coates, Marie Lu, Leslye Walton, Andrea Cremer, Caroline Tung Richmond, Beth Revis, Marissa Meyer, Y.S. Lee, Elizabeth Wein, Saundra Mitchell, Katherine Longshore, Lindsey Smith, Kekla Magoon, and Robin Talley)

The Radical Element (Dahlia Adler, Mackenzi Lee, Erin Bowman, Megan Shepard, Anne-Marie McLemore, Marieke Nijkamp, Dhonielle Clayton, Sarvenaz Tash, Stacey Lee, Meg Medina, Sara Farizan)

Both edited and features stories by Jessica Spotswood

This historical anathology books take talented authors like Libba Bray, Mackenzi Lee, etc. to write a fictional tale in a distant past of the American history to see where their fiesty heroines end up. Feminism and independence is a big part of this showing the constraints of the time period. I particularly enjoued Walton’s magical realistic tale of the Fates in 1845 New Mexico in Los Destinos and Y.S. Lee’s The Legendary Garrett Girls where two young saloon owners fight off competition of Soapy Smith in frontier Alaska as well as Magoon’s Pulse of the Panthers that’s about, you guessed it, the Black Panter Party of the 60s. The anathology displays ingenuity of their characters in circumventing the rules and making their way in the world. Diverse in stories, culture and sexuality, but with each story, it feels like lost potential for a whole book.

The Radical Element primarily focuses on those who are even more outcast, not just because of their gender, but be it sexuality, neurodivergence, disability etc. I particularly enjoyed Adler’s story in The Radical Element of Daughter of the Book where a young Jewish girl tries to argue for her right to more Biblical learning and Nijkamp’s Carrie trying to navigate a neurotypical world that says it’s all right to steralize”undesirables” in Better for All the World plus Lee’s Land of the Sweet, Home of the Brave where a young Japanese girl competes in the Miss Sugar pagent.