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Recommended Reading for Year 11 and 12 History

Afghanistan

Hosseini, Khaled The kite runner [Afghanistan]

Hosseini, Khaled A thousand splendid suns [Afghanistan]

*Michener, James A. Caravans [set in Afghanistan]

Africa

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi Half of a yellow sun [set in Nigeria]

Courtenay, Bryce The power of one [set in South Africa]

Courtenay, Bryce Whitethorn [set in South Africa]

Kingsolver, Barbara The poisonwood bible [set in the 1960s Belgian Congo]

Mandela, Nelson Long walk to freedom [biography; civil rights in South Africa]

*Michener, James A. The covenant [set in South Africa]

Osborne, Frances The bolter [1920s British and Kenyan socialite Idina Sackville]

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Ancient history

*Corby, Caroline Boudica : the secrets of the Druids [Ancient Britain]

Eldrich, Jim Roman invasion : a British boy AD84 [Roman Britain, My Story series]

French, Jackie Pharaoh : the boy who conquered the world [Ancient Eygpt]

*Geras, Adele Troy

Gregory, Kristiana Cleopatra : an Egyptian princess’s diary 57BC [Ancient Egypt, My Story series]

Le Guin, Ursula Lavinia [Ancient Rome]

Reid, Sue Pompeii : a Roman girl’s Diary AD78-79 [Ancient Rome, My story series]

*Roberts, Katherine I am the great horse [Alexander the Great]

Australia

Aldridge, James The wings of Kitty St Clair [set in 1930s]

Clarke, Judith The winds of heaven [set in 1950s]

Courtenay, Bryce Four fires [post WWII]

Courtenay, Bryce The potato factory [convicts and early settlers]

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*Courtenay, Bryce The story of Danny Dunn

Courtenay, Bryce Tommo and Hawk

Crew, Gary and Neilsen, Philip Edward Britton [convicts and early settlers]

Dubosarsky, Ursula The red shoe [set in 1960s]

Farrer, Vashti Plagues and Federation : the diary of Kitty Barnes, The Rocks, Sydney, 1901 [My Story series]

French, Jackie A waltz for Matilda [based on song ‘Waltzing Matilda’, early settlers]

Lawrinson, Julia Bye, beautiful

Lawson, Sue Finding Darcy [set in WWII]

Matthews, Penny A girl like me [early 1900s]

Morpurgo, Michael Alone on a wide, wide sea [post WWII]

Pausacker, Jenny A tale of two families : the diary of Jan Packard, Melbourne, 1974 [My Story series]

Wilding, Valerie No way back : journey of a convict 1789 [My Story series]

Wilkinson, Carole Sugar, sugar [an Australian teenager travels the world in the 1960s]

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Britain

Atkinson, Kate Life after life [20th century]

Bennett, Vanora Figures in silk [set in medieval times]

Bennett, Vanora Portrait of an unknown woman [set in Tudor period]

Breslin, Theresa Remembrance [set in Scotland during WWI]

Brooks, Geraldine Year of wonders [set during plague of 1666]

Byatt, A.S. The children’s book [set in early 1990s]

Caro, Jane Just a girl [set in Tudor period]

Chadwick, Elizabeth Lords of the white castle [medieval period]

Corby, Caroline Lady Jane Grey : Queen for sale [set in Tudor period]

*Corby, Caroline William the Conqueror : nowhere to hide [Norman Conquest in 1066]

*Courtenay, Bryce Sylvia [set in medieval times]

Crace, Jim Harvest [1700s]

Crossley-Holland, Kevin Gatty’s tale [set in medieval England]

Drinkwater, Carol Twentieth-century girl L the diary of Flora Bonnington, London 1899-1900 [My Story series]

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Follett, Ken Pillars of the earth [set in medieval England]

*Follett, Ken World without end [set in late medieval England]

Gavin, Jamila Coram boy [slave trade in the 1700s]

Gregory, Philippa The Boleyn inheritance [Tudor period]

Gregory, Philippa The Changeling [1453]

Gregory, Philippa The constant princess [Tudor period]

Gregory, Philippa The other Boleyn girl [Tudor period]

Gregory, Philippa The Queen’s fool [Tudor period]

Gregory, Philippa The virgin’s lover [Elizabethan England]

Hearn, Julie Hazel [pre WWI, suffragettes]

*Hearn, Julie Ivy

Hearn, Julie The merrybegot [Stuart period]

Hendry, Frances Mary The ’45 rising : the diary of Euphemia Grant, Scotland, 1745-1746 [My Story series]

Hooper, Mary At the house of the magician [Elizabethan England]

Hooper, Mary At the sign of the sugared plum [plague in the 1600s]

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Hooper, Mary The disgrace of Kitty Grey [19th Century]

Hooper, Mary Fallen Grace [Victorian England]

Hooper, Mary Newes from the dead [witchcraft in the 1650s]

Hooper, Mary Velvet [Victorian England]

Ibbotson, Eva The secret countess [Russian community in early 1900s]

Jinks, Catherine Pagan series [crusades in medieval times]

King, Rachel The sound of butterflies [early 1900s]

Kirwan, Anna Victoria : an English princess’s diary 1829 [My Story series]

Lasky, Kathryn Elizabeth : a Tudor princess’s diary 1544 [My Story series]

Lasky, Kathryn Mary Queen of Scots : a Scottish Queen’s diary, France 1553 [My Story series]

*Magorian, Michelle Back home [post WWII]

Mantel, Hilary Wolf Hall [Tudor period]

Mantel, Hilary Bring up the bodies [Tudor period]

McEwan, Ian Atonement [set in 1930s]

Mitchell, David Black Swan Green [set in 1980s]

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Nicholls, Sally All fall down [Black death]

Oldfield, Pamela Victorian workhouse : the diary of Edith Lorrimer, England 1871 [My story series]

Peet, Mal Life : an exploded diagram [1960s and Cuban missile crisis]

Penman, Sharon The sunne in splendour (and sequels) [medieval Britain]

Plaidy, Jean Katharine, the virgin widow [Tudor period]

Powell, Margaret Below stairs (and sequels) [biography, England in 1920s]

Priestley, Chris Battle of Britain : Harry Woods, England 1939-1941 [My Story series]

Rees, Celia The fool’s girl [Elizabethan England]

Reid, Sue Mill girl : the diary of Eliza Helsted, Manchester, 1842-1843 [My Story series]

Roxborough, Tania Banquo’s son [‘sequel’ to Shakespeare’s Macbeth]

Rutherfurd, Edward London [follows the history of London]

Rutherfurd, Edward Sarum [the history of the area around Stonehenge]

Smith, Zadie White teeth [post-colonial period]

Summerscale, Kate Mrs Robinson’s disgrace : the private diary of a Victorian lady

Turnbull, Ann No shame, no fear [Stuart period]

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Weir, Alison The captive Queen [medieval period]

Weir, Alison The Lady Elizabeth [Tudor period]

White, Ellen Emerson Voyage on the great Titanic : the diary of Margaret Anne Brady, 1912 [My Story series]

Winman, Sarah When God was a rabbit [1970s and 1980s]

China

Chang, Jung Wild swans : three daughters of China [biography]

Ishiguro, Kazuo When we were orphans [England and China, 1920s and 1930s]

Mah, Adeline Yen Chinese Cinderella [biography; twentieth century China]

Namioka, Lensey Ties that bind, ties that break

Sijie, Dai Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress [set in 1970s]

France

Breslin, Theresa The Nostradamus prophercy [set in medieval France]

Chevalier, Tracy The lady and the unicorn [set in late medieval France]

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Donnelly, Jennifer Revolution [French Revolution, late 1700s]

Gardner, Sally The red necklace [French Revolution, late 1700s]

Harris, Joanne Holy fools [set in medieval France]

Hugo, Victor Les Miserables [French Revolution, late 1700s]

Lasky, Kathryn Marie Antoinette : an Austrian princess’s diary 1769 [My Story series]

Wilkinson, Lili Joan of Arc : the story of Jehanne Darc

India

Godden, Rumer The peacock spring

Mistry, Rohinton Family matters

Mistry, Rohinton A fine balance

Rai, Bali City of ghosts

*Seth, Vikram A suitable boy

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Ireland

Dowd, Siobhan Bog child [set in 1980s Ireland]

Drinkwater, Carol The hunger : the diary of Phyllis McCormack, Ireland, 1845-1847 [My Story series]

McCourt, Frank Angela’s ashes [biography; twentieth century Ireland]

O’Beirne, Kathy Kathy’s story [biography]

O’Neill, Joan Fallen star [set in Ireland in 1959]

*Rutherfurd, Edward Dublin [set in Ireland]

Uris, Leon Trinity [set in Ireland]

Italy

Breslin, Theresa The Medici seal [set in Renaissance Italy]

Essex, Karen Leonardo’s swans [set in Renaissance Italy]

Napoli, Donna Jo Daughter of Venice [set in Italy]

New Zealand

*Indicates not held in the QHS Information Centre

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Alterio, Maxine Lives we leave behind [nurses in WWI]

Alterio, Maxine Ribbons of grace [early Chinese and European settlers]

Batistich, Amelia A better life : the diary of Ivana Ivanovich, Dargaville, 1924-25 [My Story series]

Battye, Susan and Eakin, Thelma “The mine’s afire!” : the journal of Tommy Carter, Brunnerton, 1896 [My Story series]

Beale, Fleur A new song in the land : the writings of Atapo, Paihia, c1840 [My Story series]

Beale, Fleur A respectable girl [early European settlers]

*Beattie, Kath Poor man’s gold : the diary of Reuben Radcliffe, Northland, 1899-1900 [My Story series]

Bennett, Jean Below the mountains : the diary of Amy McDonald, Milford Road, 1935-36 [My story series]

Brasell, Jill Aquarius : my Ohu year : the diary of Starshine Penney, 1975 [My Story series]

Catton, Eleanor The luminaries [set on West Coast and in Dunedin, 1860s]

Cartwright, Pauline Finding father : the journal of Mary Brogan, Otago, 1862 [My Story series]

Challinor, Deborah Kitty (and sequels) [set in 1800s and onwards]

Corlett, Shirley The Wahine disaster : Wellington, 1968 [My Story series]

Corlett, Shirley Fire in the sky : the diary of James Collier, Tarawera, 1886 [My story series]

*Dear, Lynley Ithaca

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Delamaine, Brenda Lizzie, love [set in 1883]

Frame, Janet Owls do cry

Frame, Janet To the Is-land [biography]

French, Jackie A rose for the Anzac boys [WWI]

Grover, Ray March to the sound of guns [WWI]

Hill, David Journey to Tangiwai : the diary of peter Cotterill, Napier, 1953 [My Story series]

Hill, David My brother’s war [WWI]

Holt, Sharon No survivors : the diary of Jackie Simms, Hamilton, 1979 [My Story series]

Holt, Sharon Sabotage : the diary of Rowan Webb, Auckland, 1985 [My Story series]

Hulme, Kerri The bone people

*Johnston, Phyllis Dead Dan’s Dee [post WWI]

Kidman, Fiona The book of secrets

Lasenby, Jack The haystack [1930s Depression]

MacNicol, Terri Beyond the Skippers Road [biography; high country farming]

Mansfield, Katherine various short stories

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McKay, Sandy Charlotte and the golden promise [NZ Girl series, set in 1865]

McKay, Sandy When our Jack went to war [WWI]

McVeagh, Janine Be counted : the diary of Amy Phelps, Dunedin, 1893 [My Story series]

Morris-Bensemann, Leone Escape from Sarau : the diary of Emilie Ritter, Nelson District, 1882 [My Story series]

Naglekerke, Bill Sitting on the fence : the diary of Martin Daly, Christchurch, 1981 [My Story series]

Ng, Eva Wong Chinatown girl : the diary of Silvey Chan, Auckland, 1942 [My Story series]

O’Brien, Bill Castaway : the diary of Samuel Abraham Clark, Disappointment Island, 1907 [My Story series]

Ogonowska-Coates, Halina Krystyna’s story [WWII]

Orman, Lorraine Land of promise : the diary of William Donahue, Gravesend to Wellington 1839-40 [My Story series]

*Orman, Lorraine A long way from home : the diary of Lillian Glenmore, Warkworth, 1943 [My Story series]

Orwin, Joan Kauri in my blood : the diary of Laura Ann Findlay, the Coromandel, 1921-24 [My Story series]

Pattrick, Jenny The Denniston Rose (and sequels) [set in 1800s on the West coast]

Pattrick, Jenny Landings [set in Whanganui in late 1800s]

Pattrick, Jenny Skylark [theatre in 19th century]

Shadblot, Maurice The New Zealanders [short stories]

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Stead, C.K. Talking about O’Dwyer [WWII]

Tremain, Rose The colour [gold mining]

South America

Kingsolver, Barbara The lacuna [set in 1930s-1950s in USA and Mexico]

*Marquez, Gabriel Garcia One hundred years of solitude [set in South America]

*Michener, James A. Mexico

United States of America

Alcott, Louisa May Little women [late 1800s]

Anderson, Laurie Halse Chains [slavery]

*Anderson, Laurie Halse Fever 1793

*Anderson, M.T. The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing [slavery]

Brooks, Geraldine Caleb’s crossing [set in late 1600s]

Brooks, Geraldine March [civil war period]

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Blundell, Judy What I saw and how I lied [post WWII]

*Corby, Caroline Pocahontas : the prophecy of doom [native American Indians]

Donati, Sara Into the wilderness [set in 1700 and 1800s]

Fitzgerald, F. Scott The great Gatsby [set in 1920s]

Foer, Jonathan Safran Extremely loud and incredibly close [9/11 attacks]

Fowler, Therese Z : a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald [1920s]

Frazier, Charles Cold mountain [US civil war]

Godbersen, Anna The luxe [set in early 1900s New York society]

Griffin, John Howard Black like me [biography; civil rights in the USA]

Grissom, Kathleen The kitchen house [late 1700s, early 1800s]

Gruen, Sara Water for elephants [1930s Depression]

Hess, Karen Witness [1920s and Klu Klux Klan]

Kadohata, Cynthia Kira-kira [Japanese-Americans in the 1950s]

Kidd, Sue Monk The secret life of bees [civil rights]

Landman, Tanya Apache : girl warrior

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Lee, Harper To kill a mockingbird [civil rights]

McKissack, Patricia Slave-girl : an African-American girl’s diary 1859 [My Story series]

McLain, Paula The Paris wife [ 1920s, Ernest Hemmingway’s wife]

Michener, James A. Alaska

Morrison, Toni Beloved [slavery and civil rights]

Paterson, Katherine Bread and roses, too [early twentieth century]

*Potok, Chaim The chosen [Jewish community in the USA]

*Potok, Chaim My name is Asher Lev [Jewish community in the USA]

Rees, Celia Witch child [set during Salem witch trials]

Rutherfurd, Edward New York

See, Lisa On Gold Mountain [biography; Chinese American family]

Shreve, Anita Fortune’s rocks [set in 1890s Boston]

Steinbeck, John The grapes of wrath [1930s Depression]

Stockett, Kathyrn The help [black civil rights in the 1960s]

*Tan, Amy The joy luck club [set in post-WWII Chinese community]

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Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of thunder, hear my cry [black civil rights]

Tinti, Hannah The good thief [set in 1800s]

Turner, Nancy These is my words [set in 1880s]

Vanderpool, Clare Moon over Manifest [1930s depression]

Watson, Larry Montana 1948 [post WWII]

Weisgarber, Ann The personal history of Rachel DuPree [1917, civil rights]

Other countries

Amirrezvani, Amita The blood of flowers [set in medieval Persia]

*Boyne, John The house of special purpose [set in pre WWI Russia]

Boyne, John Mutiny on the Bounty [ill-fated 1789 voyage from England to Tahiti]

Brooks, Geraldine People of the book [follows an ancient Jewish manuscript]

Chevalier, Tracy The girl with the pearl earring [set in 1600s Holland]

Cowell, Stephanie Marrying Mozart [set in Germany in 1777]

Cross, Vince Berlin Olympics : Olympic swimmer 1936 [My Story series]

*Indicates not held in the QHS Information Centre

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Eames, Andrea The cry of the go-away bird [set in 1990s in Zimbabwe]

French, Jackie They came on Viking ships [set in medieval Greenland]

Golden, Arthur Memoirs of a geisha [set in Japan]

Hill, Lawrence Someone knows my name [slavery in Sierra Leone, Britain and USA]

Iggulden, Conn Wolf of the plains (and sequels) [Genghis Khan’s Mongolian empire]

King, Rachel The sound of butterflies [Brazil in early 1900s]

McCormick, Patricia Never fall down [Killing fields in Cambodia, 1970s]

Meyer, Carolyn Anastasia : a Russian grand duchess’s diary, 1914 [My Story series]

*Michener, James A. Poland

*Michener, James A. The source [history of Judaism and Jewish people]

Mitchell, David The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet [Japan]

Reid, Atka and Schofield, Hannah Goodbye Sarajevo : a true story of courage, love and survival [biography, Bosnian war, 1990s]

*Rutherfurd, Edward Russka [set in Russia]

Satrapi, Marjane Persepolis : the story of a childhood [graphic novel, set in Iran during Islamic Revolution, late 1970s]

Sis, Peter The wall [graphic novel, set in Czechoslovakia in 1980s during Cold War]

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Spence, Alan The pure land [set in Japan]

Stassen, Jean-Phillipe Deogratias : a tale of Rwanda [graphic novel, Rwandan genocide 1990s]

*Uris, Leon Exodus [the creation of modern Israel]

Wulf, Linda The night of the burning [Poland and South Africa after WWI]

First World War

Alterio, Maxine Lives we leave behind [NZ nurses]

Barker, Pat Regeneration trilogy

De Bernieres, Louis Birds without wings [set in Turkey]

*Faulks, Sebastian Birdsong

French, Jackie The donkey who carried the wounded [Anzacs in WWI]

Hill, David My brother’s war [NZ soldiers in France]

Hope, Anna Wake

Lawrence, Iain Lord of the nutcracker men

McKay, Sandy When our Jack went to war [NZ soldiers in France]

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Morpurgo, Michael Private peaceful

Morpurgo, Michael War horse

Remarque, Erich Maria All quiet on the Western Front

Second World War

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell The boy who dared [set in Germany]

Boyne, John The boy in the striped pyjamas [set in Germany]

Chambers, Aidan Postcards from no man’s land [flashbacks to war in Holland]

De Bernieres, Louis Captain Corelli’s mandolin [set in Greece]

Donnelly, Jennifer The wild rose [set in England]

Faulks, Sebastian Charlotte Gray [set in France]

Frank, Anne Diary of a young girl [biography; set in Holland and concentration camps]

French, Jackie Hitler’s daughter

Gleitzman, Morris Once (and sequels) [set in Germany]

Greene, Betty The summer of my German soldier [set in USA]

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Heller, Joseph Catch-22 [set in Italy]

Keneally, Thomas Schindler’s list [set in Nazi Germany]

Kerr, Judith When Hitler stole pink rabbit

Leyson, Leon The boy on the wooden box [set in Nazi Germany]

Lomax, Eric The railway man [biography, Burma-Siam railway]

*Magorian, Michelle Good night Mister Tom [set in Britain]

Magorian, Michelle A little love song [set in Britain]

Morpurgo, Michael Waiting for Anya

Ondaatje, Michael The English patient

Osborne, William Hitler’s angel [set in Germany]

*Pausewang, Gudrun The final journey [set in Germany]

Robbins, Trina Lily Renee, escape artist [graphic novel, Jews in Germany]

Rodman, Mary Ann Jimmy’s stars [set in USA]

Russell, Mary Doria A thread of grace [set in Italy]

Schlink, Bernhard The reader [set in post war Germany]

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Shaffer, Mary Ann The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society [set in Britain]

Simmons, Moya Let me whisper you my story [set in Germany]

Spiegelman, Art Maus, and Maus II [graphic novels, Jewish Holocaust]

Spinelli, Jerry Milkweed [set in Warsaw, Poland]

Szymanik, Melinda A winter’s day in 1939 [Poland and Soviet Union]

*Uris, Leon Mila 18 [Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto, Poland]

Wein, Elizabeth Code name Verity

Weiss, Helga Helga’s diary : a young girl’s account of life in a concentration camp

Wiesel, Elie Night [biography; WWII concentration camps]

Zail, Suzy The wrong boy [setin Auschwitz, Germany]

Zusak, Marcus The book thief [set in Germany]

Vietnam War

*Anderson, Rachel Warlands

Bauer, Michael Gerard The running man

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*Courtenay, Bryce Smokey Joe’s café

DeMille, Nelson Up country

*Greene, Graham The quiet American

Kadohata, Cynthia Cracker : the best dog on the battlefield

*Leather, Stephen The tunnel rats

*O’Brien, Tim The things they carried [short stories]

*Rushby, Pamela When the hipchicks went to war

Starke, Ruth Noodlepie