Post Civil War/Immigration/Native American Experience
Turner, Ann. The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864.
Karr, Kathleen. Oh, Those Harper Girls!
Gregory, Kristiana. The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868.
Beatty, Patricia. Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee.
Meyer, Carolyn. Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker.
Beatty, Patricia. Bonanza Girl.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Staircase. (1870’s Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Bauer, Marion Dane. Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rodgers, An English Girl in Minnesota, New Yeovil, Minnesota, 1873
Rinaldi, Ann. The Coffin Quilt; the Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys
Rinaldi, Ann. My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, 1880.
Taylor, Mildred. The Land. (1880’s Mississippi)
Beatty, Patricia. By Crumbs, It’s Mine. (1880’s Arizona)
Beatty, Patricia. Red Rock Over the River. (1881 Arizona)
Murphy, Jim. My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, A Prairie Teacher. Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881.
Murphy, Jim. West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883.
Beatty, Patricia. Melinda Takes a Hand. (Colorado 1893)
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. A Coal Miner’s Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896.

Turn of the Century/Early 20th Century
Jocelyn, Marthe. Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance. (1901)
Turner, Nancy. These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Land of Promise. (1902)
Lasky, Kathryn. Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903.
Rinaldi, Ann. Brooklyn Rose.
Gregory, Kristiana. Earthquake at Dawn. (San Francisco earthquake, 1906)
Beatty, Patricia. Lacy Makes a Match.
Beatty, Patricia. Hail Columbia!
Beatty, Patricia. That’s One Ornery Orphan.
Beatty, Patricia. Behave Yourself, Bethany Brant.
Hopkinson, Deborah. Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker, New York City , 1909.
Beatty, Patricia. Sarah and Me and the Lady from the Sea.
Beatty, Patricia. O the Red Rose Tree.
Beatty, Patricia. The Nickel-Plated Beauty.

World War I, 1910-1920’s
White, Elen Emerson. Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912.
Beatty, Patricia. Eight Mules from Monterrey.
McKissack, Patricia. Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919.
Lasky, Kathryn. A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington D.C., 1917.
Levine, Beth Seidel. When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front, 1917.
Rostkowski, Margaret. After the Dancing Days.
Marshall, Catherine. Christy.
Meyer, Carolyn. White Lilacs. (Dillon, Texas, 1921)

The Great Depression, 1930’s
Lasky, Kathryn. Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift. Indianapolis, IN, 1932.
Denenberg, Barry. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan, The Perkins School for the Blind, 1932.
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Taylor, Mildred. Let the Circle Be Unbroken.
Janke, Katelan. Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935.
Peck, Richard. Year Down Yonder. (1937)

World War II, 1930’s and 40’s
Denenberg, Barry. One Eye Laughing, The Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938.
Rinaldi, Ann. Keep Smiling Through.
Osborne, Mary Pope. My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941.
Denenberg, Barry. Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941.
Greene, Betty. Summer of my German Soldier.

A 1998 article by Joanne Brown about writing YA historical fiction and about teaching historical fiction to young adults from ALAN Review.

As teachers, we can help our students question the interpretations of the past offered by any single historical novel. With our students, we can make connections between past and present issues to weigh the novel’s historical perspective. Together we can discuss how a writer has represented a particular cultural or racial group. We can assess a story’s accuracy by reading more than one novel on the period or researching the history itself. And as we and our students engage with the “problems” of historical fiction, we can come to understand how the genre provides us with a lens not only upon our collective past but also upon a “here and now” that defines our individual lives.