Keeping Things Civil

The Civil War determined what kind of nation America would be by answering two major, unresolved issues:
Would America be a confederation of independent states or "an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and would this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, continue to exist as the largest slave-holding country in the world?”*  

From 2011 to 2015, our nation will continue to celebrate the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the Civil War to honor and preserve the importance of this defining time in American history. Many children’s authors have drawn inspiration from it to write fascinating historical fiction.

Below is a list of intriguing and exciting Civil War themed stories for school age readers.

Check them out!

Ghost Soldier by Elaine Marie Alpin		Li’l Dan, The Drummer Boy by Romaire Bearden
Jayhawker by Patricia Beatty		The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier by Lynda Durrant		Promises to the Dead by Mary Downing Hahn
Freedom Stone by Jeffrey Kluger		The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War by Carol Matas
The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills		Escape By Night: A Civil War Adventure by Laurie Myers
Civil War Sunday by Mary Pope Osbourne		The River Between Us by Richard Peck
Just In Time, Abraham Lincoln by Patricia Polacco		Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco
Happy Birthday, Addie! by Connie Rose Porter		Juliet’s Moon by Ann Rinaldi
Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gillem Robinet		If You Please, President Lincoln by Harriette Gillem Robinet

*Adapted from: http://www.civilwar.org/150th-anniversary/