Read Your Way Across 50 States!
Just for fun, I’ve compiled this list of books which take place in different states in the United States. Some states might not have a book listed yet, but this site is always a work in progress (which is also the reason why I have book titles which don’t have descriptions or reviews yet, they will be filled in later)! If the list gets too long (and it probably will at some point), I might decide to start giving individual states separate pages. A couple of states have an official state children’s book. If anyone would like to recommend a state-specific book, let me know!
For other lists of state-related books, see:
Reading Through the States with Wrapped in Foil
States
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
The Day of the Ogre Kachinas (1994)
A young Hopi boy learns right and wrong and how much his parents love him from the Ogre Kachinas in a traditional Hopi ceremony.
Trixie and the other Bob-Whites discover a series of mysteries while visiting Di’s uncle on his ranch in Arizona. Part of the Trixie Belden series. By Julie Campbell.
A group of children create a town of their own in the Arizona desert, using whatever they can find and their own imaginations. By Alice McLerran.
The Son of the Slime Who Ate Cleveland (1985)
A jelly bean counting contest that gets overly competitive threatens to break up Frank’s friendship with his two best friends, unless he can think of a way to salvage it. By Marjorie Weinman Sharmat.
Resources
Children’s Picture Books: Stories Set in Arizona – from Diverse Book Finder, about multicultural books
Arkansas
Summer of My German Soldier
A twelve-year-old Jewish girl living in Arkansas during WWII meets a German soldier who escaped from a POW camp, and the two become unexpected friends. By Bette Greene.
California
The Court of the Stone Children (1973)
A lonely girl who loves museums encounters a ghost who needs her help to learn the truth about the past.
Just a Little Bit Lost (1988)
A girl named Bennett is talked into going on a hiking trip by her friend Darcie, but then Darcie gets sick and can’t go after all. Bennett isn’t used to hiking and isn’t really prepared for the trip. She gets separated from the other hikers and is rescued by Phillip, a boy that Darcie likes and the reason she wanted to go on the hiking trip in the first place. The two of them are left behind by the other hikers. At first, Bennett and Phillip don’t like each other, but they learn to get along so they can survive until they are rescued. By Laurel Trivelpiece.
Mystery of the Green Cat (1957)
As four children try to adjust to their new blended family, they become involved with the secrets of the mysterious people living in the house next door. By Phyllis Whitney.
Newly orphaned Emily Luccock journeys to the home of her Aunt and Uncle Twice in San Francisco only to find that their home has been taken over by a sinister and mysterious woman. By Barbara Brooks Wallace.
The Secret of the Floating Phantom (1994)
Kathy goes to stay with her grandmother in California for awhile. However, her grandmother and her grandmother’s friend, Loretta, are holding secret nighttime séances to contact Loretta’s deceased husband in order to find something very important.
A Spell is Cast (1974)
Cory, a lonely young orphan, goes to stay with her guardian’s relatives in California, learning the secrets of her own past and those of her new family and finding a better home than the one she left behind. By Eleanor Cameron.
Aaron, a teenage boy in Hollywood, California, is recruited to become a wizard’s apprentice. While learning magic, he also becomes reconciled to his parents’ divorce.
Series
The hilarious escapades of Cathy and her crazy cousin Courtney in New York and California. By Judi Miller.
A Jewish family flees Germany to escape World War II and struggles to establish themselves in America. The stories cover the changes in their lives and how the daughters of the family deal with growing up in a new country after they eventually settle in California. By Sonia Levitin.
Sixteen-year-old Linda Craig is an orphan who lives with her brother and grandparents on a ranch, the Rancho del Sol, in California. By Ann Sheldon, A Stratemeyer Syndicate series. 1962-1984.
Olivia Sharp, Agent for Secrets
Olivia Sharp uses her wits and her family’s money to help her friends to solve their secret problems. 1989-1991.
Sammy Keyes is a girl detective whose own life contains many mysteries. By Wendelin Van Draanen. 1998-2014.
An African American girl in Northern California solves mysteries with her friends. By Patricia Elmore. 1980-1992.
The Three Investigators Series
Three friends form a detective business, using a trailer in a salvage yard as their headquarters.
Colorado
Mystery of the Black Diamonds (1974)
While visiting Colorado with their father while he does research for a mystery novel, Mark and Angie meet an old man who gives them the key to a mysterious treasure. By Phyllis A. Whitney.
The Secret School (2001)
In 1925 rural Colorado, 14-year-old Ida wants to become a teacher, which will be impossible now that the local school has closed, unless she and her friends do something about it. By Avi.
Whistler in the Dark (2002)
Colorado, 1867. Emma Henderson is embarrassed that her widowed mother has taken to wearing a Reform Dress with those hideous bloomers. She worries about what everyone else will think, although her mother assures her that she’s doing it partly for her benefit, to prove the point that women are as capable as men. Emma’s father was killed during the Civil War, and her mother had been heavily involved in war relief work in his absence. Now, her mother has also found a job working for a newspaper in the Colorado Territory. Moving across the country is difficult enough, but it seems that someone doesn’t want them in Twin Pines. By Kathleen Ernst.
Series
The Gymnasts
A general fiction series about a girls’ gymnastics team in Denver. By Elizabeth Levy.
Connecticut
The Hundred Dresses (1944)
Kids in a small town bully a poor immigrant girl, who only ever wears one dress to school, for saying that she has one hundred dresses at home in her closet. Later, in an art contest at school, the kids learn that she was talking about drawings of dresses that she had made. The girl wins the contest and the kids want to apologize, but the girl and her family have already been driven away from town by the bullying. By Eleanor Estes.
When James and Laura move to a new house in the country, they make some surprising friends and try to decide if the well on the property is magic or not. By Edward Eager.
The Moffats
By Eleanor Estes.
Some children find a strange book at the library which seems to be about them. However, the book is unfinished. Gradually, the blank pages of book write themselves, and whatever happens in the book happens to the children. By Edward Eager.
The Vanishing Scarecrow (1971)
When Joan and her mother inherit an amusement park from her late uncle, they must learn who is dressing up as a scarecrow and trying to sabotage it. By Phyllis Whitney.
The children thought that the wishing well from the previous book was out of magic, but a rash wish from their friend, Gordy, seems to reawaken it. Sequel to Magic or Not? By Edward Eager.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958)
A teenage orphan girl comes to live with puritan relatives in Colonial America. Unused to the ways of the puritans, she is suspected of being a witch.
Series
A to Z Mystery Series
Three children solve mysteries in a series with names in alphabetical order. By Ron Roy.
The Baby-Sitters Club Series
A group of girls forms a baby-sitting business. Stories are from the point of view of different girls. By Ann M. Martin.
Resources
Children’s & Young Adult Fiction Set in Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
The Mystery of the Other Girl (1971)
Stevie gets an odd phone call from a girl she’s never met that’s meant for her ex-boyfriend. It sounds like the girl who called is in danger, and Stevie has to figure out who and where she is. By Wylly Folk St. John.
The Secret River (1955)
A girl named Calpurnia who lives in Florida during the Great Depression is worried because everyone is too hungry to work. To help them, she searches for a secret, magical river to supply her family and friends with food. By Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
The Yearling (1939)
A boy in rural 1870s Florida adopts an orphaned fawn but is later forced to shoot it.
Georgia
Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain (1980) and Christmas with Ida Early (1983)
During the Great Depression, the eccentric Ida is hired as a housekeeper by the widower, Mr. Sutton, and helps to take care of his four children. By Robert Burch.
The Mystery of the Gingerbread House (1969)
By Wylly Folk St. John.
The Secrets of Hidden Creek (1966)
By Wylly Folk St. John.
The Secrets of the Pirate Inn (1968)
Three children help an old man to search for a hidden treasure in an old pirate’s inn. Disney called it Secrets of the Pirate’s Inn for the made-for-tv movie, and there are some notable differences between the book and the movie. By Wylly Folk St. John.
Resources
Georgia Center for the Book – Books by Georgia authors, with a special kids’ reading list. My one complaint is that the list doesn’t have summaries of the books.
Hawaii
The Mystery of the Haunted Trail
When Brian visits his pen pal in Hawaii for the summer, he confronts a ghostly mystery based on Hawaiian legends. By Janet Lorimer.
Idaho
A young girl in 1914 wants to go visit her grandmother, but her family can’t afford the train ticket . . . until they realize that they can afford for her to travel as mail. Based on a true story. By Michael O. Tunnell.
Two Are Better Than One (1968)
Two imaginative girls growing up in early 1900s Idaho write a story about a pair of dolls that changes their lives. The story takes place over a period of months, but it’s framed around Christmas. By Carol Ryrie Brink.
Illinois
Joey and Mary Alice live in Chicago during the Great Depression, but every summer, they go to stay with their grandmother in a small town in Illinois and get caught up in her hilarious escapades. By Richard Peck.
When her father is out of work at the end of the Great Depression, Mary Alice goes to live with her eccentric grandmother in the country. By Richard Peck
Series
Molly, An American Girl Series
Molly lives with her family in Illinois while her father is an army doctor stationed in England during World War II.
Indiana
Susan is a little girl during the 1800s, and she and her family make the journey from Kentucky to Indiana in a covered wagon. She shares her adventures with her beloved doll, Abigail. By Portia Howe Sperry and Lois Donaldson.
A Girl of the Limberlost
Elnora lives in the Limberlost swamp during the early 1900s, dealing with her difficult relationship with her widowed mother and collecting moths and butterflies that she can sell in order to get money to help further her education. A children’s classic! By Gene Stratton-Porter.
A family goes to spend the summer at a lake and has magical adventures with the help of a talking turtle. By Edward Eager.
Series
The adventures of a girl and her friends who live on Hopper Street in their Indiana town.
Mary Rose and Jo-Beth Mysteries
About a pair of sisters who live in Indiana and have adventures on road trips with their father. Written by Eth Clifford.
Iowa
The Bob-Whites visit Trixie’s uncle’s sheep ranch and investigate missing sheep. Trixie’s relationship with Jim changes. Part of the Trixie Belden series. By Kathryn Kenny.
The Haunting of Cabin 13 (1987)
When Laurie’s family rents a cabin by a lake during the summer, it seems like the cabin is haunted by the ghost of a girl who died there the year before, who keeps leaving mysterious notes for Laurie.
An Elizabethan princess suddenly finds herself on a farm in 20th century Iowa. By Jane Resh Thomas.
Series
McBroom Series
About a family and their amazing one-acre farm. Tall tales. By Sid Fleischman.
Resources
For more about books that take place in Iowa, see Iowa: A Literary Landscape.
Kansas
Mystery of the Melted Diamonds (1986)
While spending the winter in Kansas, two cousins investigate the theft of diamonds from a local jewelry store.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
A young farm girl is carried off to a magical land by a tornado. This book is public domain and is available on Project Gutenberg. By L. Frank Baum.
Kentucky
Louisiana
Lady Jane (1891)
The adventures of an orphan girl in 19th century New Orleans. by C. V. Jamison.
The Smuggler’s Treasure (1999)
A young girl is sent to live with relatives in New Orleans after her father is apparently killed in the War of 1812, but she learns that her father may actually be a prisoner and needs her help to be freed. By Sarah Masters Buckey.
Maine
Abbie Against the Storm
A picture book about the life of Abbie Burgess, who is known for keeping her family’s lighthouse lit in her father’s absence. By Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth.
Blueberries for Sal (1948)
Little Sal goes picking blueberries with her mother, but when they each wander off, Sal and a baby bear each mistake each other’s mother for their own.
Peter finds out that he’s going to have to share his family vacation with the awful Sheila and her family because the families have gone together to rent a house in Maine. Worse than that, when romance blossoms between his grandmother and Sheila’s grandfather, will Peter and Sheila be able to stand becoming . . . relatives? Part of the Fudge Series. By Judy Blume.
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
A picture book about the life of Abbie Burgess, who is known for keeping her family’s lighthouse lit in her father’s absence. This one was featured on Reading Rainbow. By Peter Roop and Connie Roop, illustrated by Peter E. Hanson.
After a life of travel, Alice Rumphius settles down in a house by the sea and is called the Lupine Lady because of her love of the flowers and for scattering seeds wherever she goes. By Barbara Cooney.
Mother Carey’s Chickens (1911)
A widow and her children struggle to make a new life for themselves in a small town in Maine while taking in a cousin who is a snob. This book is public domain and on Project Gutenberg. It was also the basis for Disney’s Summer Magic. By Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin.
Mystery of the Black-Magic Cave
Part of the Meg Duncan Mysteries series. By Holly Beth Walker.
One Morning in Maine (1952)
A little girl spends an enchanting morning with her father on the coast of Maine and loses her first tooth. By Robert McCloskey.
The Sign of the Beaver (1983)
In 18th century America, a 13-year-old boy helps his father build a new cabin for their family on the frontier. When his father leaves him to watch over the cabin while he returns to their home town to bring the rest of the family to the cabin, the boy learns to take care of himself with the help of a Native American friend. Lonely and worried about what will happen if his family never arrives, the boy considers accepting an offer from his friend to join his tribe and travel with them. By Elizabeth George Speare.
Time of Wonder (1957)
A girl enjoys a special family vacation in Maine, made magical by the beauties of nature and her own imagination. By Robert McCloskey.
Twelve-year-old Phineas Hall and his fifteen-year-old sister, Althea, have recently moved to Maine with their father, Professor Hall, because he got a job working at the small Vandemark College. When the patriarch of the Vandemark family dies and leaves a real Egyptian mummy to the college, Professor Hall is put in charge of the exhibit, and the kids investigate the mystery that surrounds the mummy. By Cynthia Voigt.
Resources
Maine doesn’t have an official state children’s book, but high on my list of suggestions would be Abbie Against the Storm or Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. They are both about Abbie Burgess, who lived in the 1800s and is known for keeping her family’s lighthouse lit during a terrible storm in her father’s absence.
You can find other children’s books about Maine here.
Maryland
Jacob Have I Loved
Sara Louise has been overshadowed by her twin, Caroline, her entire life. As she grows up, Caroline somehow always seems to be prettier, more talented, more popular, and have more opportunities than Sara Louise has while Sara Louise has to make more sacrifices for Caroline’s sake as well as the rest of the family. When she is grown, Sara Louise finally sets out on her own to discover her own identity and become her own person, away from Caroline, and learns to make peace with her past and create a better future. By Katherine Paterson.
A group of cousins has magical adventures with a toy castle that comes to life. By Edward Eager.
Scared Stiff (1991)
Kelly’s parents are morticians, and their family lives over the mortuary. Their work always gives Kelly the creeps, but one night, a dead body comes to live, bent on revenge against the people who sent him to prison. By Jahnna N. Malcolm.
Series
About a boy from a poor, troubled family during World War II. By Mary Downing Hahn.
Massachusetts
The Ghost of Windy Hill (1968)
Professor Carver and his family move into a house in the country to solve the mystery of the ghost that is haunting it. By Clyde Robert Bulla.
An apprentice silversmith in Colonial America injures his hand and has to find a new path for himself in life, playing a role in the American Revolution. By Esther Hoskins Forbes.
Her father’s absence and her mother’s illness force young Lyddie to seek her fortune as a factory worker during the 1840s. By Katherine Paterson.
This is the Official State Children’s Book of Massachusetts! A family of Mallards make their home in the Boston Public Gardens with the help of some friendly policemen. By Robert McCloskey.
Mystery of the Witches’ Bridge (1967)
An orphan boy comes to live with his uncle in their family’s mysterious ancestral home, where there are stories about witches and curses and a modern day mystery to solve. By Barbee Oliver Carleton.
A young boy at Plimoth Plantation is pleased that he is finally old enough to help his father with the harvest and is eager to prove that he can work as hard as any man.
This book features a young girl who was an historical interpreter at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum, playing the part of a real pilgrim girl who lived in 17th century Plymouth. By Kate Waters.
While visiting a relative during the summer, four cousins discover something strange about her thyme garden. It turns out that it’s really a time garden, inhabited by the mysterious Natterjack. When the children pick a spring of thyme, the variety of thyme they choose takes them to another time. By Edward Eager.
Under Copp’s Hill (2000)
Boston, Massachusetts, 1908. Innie Moretti is an orphan who lives with relatives. She joins a library club with some of the other girls, but strange things start happening there: things move around or just disappear. The girls wonder if the building could be haunted, but then someone accuses Innie of being a thief! By Katherine Ayres.
Series
This metaphysical fantasy book series that focuses on the Hall family of Concord, Massachusetts and references Transcendentalist literature and famous literary figures. The best-known book in the series is the first one, The Diamond in the Window. By Jane Langton. 1962-2008.
Michigan
The Legend of Sleeping Bear
By Kathy-jo Wargin. The Official State Children’s Book of Michigan!
Mystery of the Fog Man (1966)
The boys investigate the theft of money from a ferry boat over the summer, and part of the secret of this mystery centers around a mysterious figure on the beach known as the Fog Man.
A girl talks about how her grandmother, who she likes to call “Babushka” because she originally came from Russia, cured her of her fear of storms by teaching her to make a special kind of cake, Thunder Cake. By Patricia Polacco.
Series
Four girls during the early 1900s fix up a vacant cottage to use as a kind of playhouse, but having a real house as their playhouse changes their lives as it brings them into contact with new and interesting people. By Carroll Watson Rankin.
Flee Jay and Clarice Mysteries
Flee Jay Saylor investigates mysteries with her child genius sister, Clarice. By Carol Farley.
A granddaughter passes on stories that her grandmother told her about growing up on a farm in Michigan during the 1800s. The stories often have a Christian moral. By Arleta Richardson.
Minnesota
Series
A series about a pair of best friends growing up in Minnesota around the turn of the last century. By Maud Hart Lovelace. 1940-1955.
About a girl in elementary school who solves mysteries with the help of her friends, who call themselves The Martians. By Susan Pearson.
Kirsten, An American Girl Series
Kirsten is a pioneer girl in the 1850s. She comes to America from Sweden with her family, and they settle in Minnesota, which was then on the American frontier.
Mississippi
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
About a black girl named Cassie Logan and her family’s struggles during the Great Depression. By Mildred D. Taylor.
The Secret of the Seven Crows (1973)
A family moves into an old mansion by the Gulf Coast, one that has a reputation for being haunted and may be hiding a treasure. By Wylly Folk St. John.
Missouri
Mystery of the Secret Dolls (1993)
A pair of girls search for antique dolls from the Civil War era that are the key to an old family secret. By Vicki Berger Erwin.
Series
A group of neighborhood friends living in St. Louis start their own newspaper, using a treehouse as their headquarters.
Montana
Nebraska
The Haunted Underwear (1992)
Strange things are happening around Kelly’s house since her parents adopted a four-year-old boy. By Janet Adele Bloss.
Series
Adelaide “Addie” Mills tells stories about her experiences growing up with a widowed father in a small town in Nebraska in the 1940s. All of the books involve Addie, as an adult, telling stories about her youth, and they all center around holidays. By Gail Rock.
Gib Rides Home and Gib and the Gray Ghost
A two-book series about an orphan boy in Nebraska during the early 1900s. By Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
About an orphan boy who lives with relatives in 1950s Nebraska and has adventures with his friend, Paul. By Trella Lamson Dick.
Nevada
New Hampshire
Laura and Bill are visiting their Uncle Joe, who is the caretaker of a large hotel in New Hampshire. The hotel is closed for the winter, but the children investigate the ghost who supposedly haunts it and may have their uncle under her spell. By Janet Adele Bloss.
Resources
For more books about New Hampshire, see Books About New Hampshire.
New Jersey
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
A pre-teen girl moves from New York to New Jersey and deals with issues of growing up and tries to decide what religion she should follow, asking some of the big questions in life and questioning what she really believes. She was raised without a religion because one of her parents is Christian and the other is Jewish, and they wanted to allow her to decide for herself when she was old enough. By Judy Blume.
The Mystery of the Crimson Ghost (1969)
When Janey visits her aunt in the country, she investigates the circumstances surrounding a beautiful horse, the unhappy family who owns it, and the mysterious ghost dog that haunts them. By Phyllis Whitney.
A pair of twins star in a silent movie serial during World War I and learn that their father’s death was due to war-related sabotage, not an accident.
Sequel to Molly’s Pilgrim. Molly learns for the first time what birthday celebrations are like in the United States, but because her friend’s birthday falls during Passover, she cannot eat any of the cake at the party. Another girl tries to make trouble for her, but Molly’s own birthday celebration helps some of the other children to understand. By Barbara Cohen.
A young Jewish immigrant girl from Russia has trouble fitting into her new town until her teacher’s explanation about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving and the pilgrim doll her mother makes for her help the other children at school to see her in a new way. By Barbara Cohen.
Nonfiction
Not specifically a children’s book, but appropriate for children. It was a favorite of mine when I was young. It was the inspiration for the modern Cheaper by the Dozen movies, but unlike the movies, it is about real people. The father was an efficiency expert, not a football coach. There is an older movie based more closely on the book.
New Mexico
Something Queer in the Wild West
This is part of the Something Queer Mysteries series. Gwen and Jill visit a ranch in New Mexico and investigate a haunted barn. By Elizabeth Levy.
Series
Josefina, An American Girl Series
The adventures of a young girl living on her family’s ranch in New Mexico during the early 1800s.
New York
Anna, Grandpa, and the Big Storm
Anna’s grandfather has come to visit her family in New York City in 1888, but he doesn’t think the city is very interesting until he and Anna are caught on a train during the Great Blizzard that struck the city in that year and they have to band together with other people to help each other. By Carla Stevens.
When Amelia Fairwick hears that her father has been killed, she must go live with distant cousins in New York. However, nothing is what it seems, and she finds herself at the center of a sinister plot. By Barbara Brooks Wallace.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967)
Claudia convinces her brother to run away from home with her to hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where they discover a mystery concerning the origins of a new statue on display at the museum. By E. L. Konigsburg.
The Ghost of the Gracie Mansion (1999)
The Gracie family of New York City goes to their new country mansion to escape a yellow fever epidemic, but strange things are happening at their new house. By Susan Kohl, illustrated by Ned Butterfield.
I Hate English (1989)
When Mei Mei’s family moves from Hong Kong to New York, she finds herself forced to go to a school where no one else speaks Chinese. She is expected to learn English and to read, write, and speak in English, and she hates it! How will she learn to communicate with others in her new home?
The Lost Village of Central Park (1999)
Seneca Village is a community of African Americans and immigrants, but things change for the children who live there and the escaped slaves they’ve been helping when the city decides to take the land to create Central Park in the 1850s. By Hope Lourie Killcoyne.
My Side of the Mountain (1959)
A twelve-year-old boy hates living with his large family in a cramped apartment and decides to go to the empty farm in the Catskills once owned by his great-grandfather. The boy learns self-sufficiency, living by himself, but when the rest of his family comes to join him, he realizes that there are also benefits to being with the people he loves. By Jean Craighead George.
Nina’s father owns an antique store, and Nina loves a pair of automatons which have been in the shop for years. When her father suddenly receives two different offers to buy them, they learn that the automatons have been hiding a secret.
The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline
Caroline comes to believe that the new man in her apartment building, who seems interested in her mother, may actually be a murderer.
Phoebe the Spy (1977)
A young black girl in New York in 1776 must become a spy to save the life of George Washington.
The Sherwood Ring (1958)
Peggy Grahame, a teenage orphan, goes to live with her Uncle Enos in their family’s ancestral home in New York. Uncle Enos is obsessed with family history, and Peggy discovers that their home is haunted by the ghosts of their ancestors. The ghosts tell their stories to Peggy, and she learns the history of her family and how to solve some problems in the present. By Elizabeth Marie Pope.
Audrey and her younger brother Nathan are having a picnic when they accidentally unearth an old pocket watch that transports them back in time to the Revolutionary War.
Series
The hilarious escapades of Cathy and her crazy cousin Courtney in New York and California. By Judi Miller.
Peter Hatcher tells humorous stories about his little brother, Farley Drexel Hatcher, who everyone calls Fudge.
Samantha, An American Girl Series
Samantha is an orphan living with wealthy relatives in New York during the early 1900s. She starts off living in a small town along the Hudson River with her grandmother and later moves to New York City to live with her uncle.
A classic mystery series featuring a girl and her group of friends who solve mysteries and support good causes. They live in a small town near the Hudson River in New York state. Created by Julie Campbell and continued by other authors.
Non-Fiction
If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island (1993)
What it was like to arrive at Ellis Island as a child immigrant. By Ellen Levine.
Immigrant Kids (1980)
The lives of immigrant children who came to the United States around the turn of the 20th century, late 1800s to early 1900s.
North Carolina
Betrayal at Cross Creek (2004)
North Carolina, 1775.
The Night Flyers (1999)
North Carolina, 1918. Pam Lowder has helped her father to raise homing pigeons, but now he is away in Europe, fighting in World War I (known as the Great War prior to WWII). Then, some of Pam’s best birds start to disappear, and she suspects that the stranger who has recently come to town is the one taking them. By Elizabeth McDavid Jones.
North Dakota
Ohio
Four siblings find a strange coin that seems to grant wishes. However, for some reason, it only grants half their wishes. When they want something, they have to remember to double whatever they ask for to get what they really want. By Edward Eager.
The House of Dies Drear and The Mystery of Drear House
Thomas Small moves to Ohio with his family to live in an old house that was once part of the Underground Railroad. The house still contains secrets and hidden treasures. By Virginia Hamilton.
The Secret of the Strawbridge Place
The story takes place in during the Great Depression when Kate learns a secret about her family’s home that dates back to the Civil War. By Helen Pierce Jacob.
When Becky is accused of taking books from the library that were rare collector’s items, she and her twin brother Toby, set out to find what really happened to the books. By Avi.
Oklahoma
Dancing with the Indians (1991)
An African American family in the 1930s joins the Seminole tribe in Oklahoma for a celebration. By Angela Shelf Medearis.
Picking Peas for a Penny (1990)
African American children during the 1930s help their grandparents harvest crops on their family farm. By Angela Shelf Medearis.
Resources
For books about Oklahoma, see Teaching Oklahoma History.
Oregon
Miranda is living with her grandmother in Oregon while her scientist parents are away studying algae in Antarctica. Her grandmother owns a bed and breakfast called The Jumping Frog, which has a Mark Twain theme. Mark Twain once stayed there years ago, and Miranda must solve a mystery concerning the theft of some letters written by Mark Twain. By Sharon E. Heisel.
Series
About the everyday adventures of a little girl living in Portland. Her stories focus on her adventures at school and with family and how things change for her as she grows up. By Beverly Cleary.
Pennsylvania
A girl moves further west with her family, establishing a new homestead in 1784 Pennsylvania and receiving a surprise visit from George Washington. By Jean Fritz.
Miracles on Maple Hill (1956)
With their father suffering from shock and depression after having been a prisoner of war during World War II, Marly and Joe’s mother moves the family to their grandmother’s old house in the small town of Maple Hill, where the children’s father can get some rest. There, they are befriended by a couple of supportive neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Chris, who make maple syrup. When Mr. Chris suffers a heart attack and must spend some time in the hospital, the family helps Mrs. Chris with making the maple syrup. The family’s friendship with the neighbors and learning how people can help and support each other helps the father to heal from the war.
Voices at Whisper Bend (1999)
Pennsylvania, 1942. Charlotte Campbell’s brother is a soldier, fighting in World War II. Charlotte and other children in her class at school are taking part in a scrap metal drive to help the war effort, but someone steals the metal they’ve been collecting. Discovering who the thief is leads Charlotte to other startling discoveries. By Katherine Ayres.
Series
Addy begins as a slave girl in the South during the Civil War. She and her mother manage to escape and settle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they eventually reunite with other family members.
J. Huntley English is a boy genius who also happens to believe in monsters and wants to find real ones. With his friends, he investigates strange phenomena and odd people in their small town in Pennsylvania. By Drew Stevenson.
About a girl who wants to be a detective and her two friends. They investigate spooky mysteries in a small town in Pennsylvania. Written by Drew Stevenson.
Rhode Island
A boy named Kenny moves to Providence and finds himself caught up in a ghostly mystery, taken back in time to stop an old murder and prevent others from being caught up in a never-ending tragedy. By Avi.
Series
Meg Mackintosh is a girl who likes to solve mysteries. The interesting thing about this series is that the books are designed so that the readers can attempt to solve the mysteries along with Meg, using the pictures provided and other clues. By Lucinda Landon. 1986-2013.
South Carolina
The son of a colonel in the revolutionary army during the American Revolution becomes the man of his family when his father is captured. With British soldiers occupying his family’s house, young Joey does what he can to keep his family safe.
Mystery on Skull Island (2001)
Charles Town, South Carolina, 1724. Twelve-year-old Rachel Howell has been living with her grandparents in New York since her mother died and her father went to South Carolina to establish a new life for them. Now, he has sent for Rachel to join him. He has decided to remarry, giving Rachel the mother that he thinks she really needs, although Rachel has some doubts about her new mother. She makes friends with the daughter of the local tavern-keeper, Sally, although they mostly meet in secret because her father’s fiance thinks that Sally isn’t a suitable friend for a young girl from a wealthy family, like Rachel. But, sinister things are happening on a nearby island that threaten Rachel’s family. By Elizabeth McDavid Jones.
Series
A historical mystery series with Christian themes that takes place in turn-of-the-century South Carolina. Amanda Shaw is an orphan with a mysterious past but who finds a new life with relatives she had never met. By Lois Gladys Leppard.
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Foolish Gretel
Three sisters compete for a job as companion to a wealthy woman in 1855 Galveston. By Jennifer Armstrong.
A Comanche girl realizes that the only way to save her people from a drought is to sacrifice the thing she loves most. By Tomie dePaola.
A young deaf girl is kidnapped for ransom. Her best friend searches for her while she struggles to leave clues to help her friend learn her kidnapper’s identity.
Series
A sweet, kind schoolteacher has a substitute who is a nightmare, but they are really the same person.
Resources
For more books about Texas, see Reading Through Texas.
Utah
Resources
For books set in Utah, see Fiction Set in Utah.
Vermont
Her father’s absence and her mother’s illness force young Lyddie to seek her fortune as a factory worker during the 1840s. By Katherine Paterson.
Mystery in the Old Cave (1950)
A neglected and abused orphan boy helps friends to find a missing treasure in an old cave and finds a new family. By Helen Fuller Orton.
A young orphan girl goes to live with relatives on a farm in Vermont and finds a happier home than the one she left behind and a new sense of self-confidence. It is public domain and on Project Gutenberg. By Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
Series
About a girl whose parents are divorced and the changes in her family. By Jeanne Betancourt.
Robert and his best friend Soup have a reputation for getting into scrapes in their small town in Vermont during the 1920s. By Robert Newton Peck.
After his parents divorce, ten-year-old Miguel moves to Vermont with his mother and sister, and his Great-Aunt Lola comes to live with them from the Dominican Republic. By Julia Alvarez.
Resources
For more books set in Vermont, see Vermont Secretary of State Reader’s Corner.
Virginia
The girl playing the part of Mary Geddy at Colonial Williamsburg shows the kind of life a girl at the beginning of the American Revolution lived. By Kate Waters.
A young Native American girl befriends some of the new settlers from Europe, and her life is changed forever. Based on a true story about a real person.
An orphan boy with a mysterious past searches for his long-lost twin and the secret to his true identity. By Barbara Brooks Wallace.
Series
Felicity, An American Girl Series
Felicity is a girl living in Virginia at the beginning of the American Revolution.
Meg and her best friend Kerry solve mysteries in their small Virginia town and other places along the east coast. By Holly Beth Walker.
Washington
West Virginia
When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982)
A woman remembers what life was like when she lived with her grandparents in rural West Virginia as a child.
Wisconsin
Caddie Woodlawn (1935)
The adventures of a young girl in frontier Wisconsin in the 1860s.
Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
Charles and Caroline Ingalls live with their three daughters Mary, Laura, and little Carrie on a little farm in rural Wisconsin.
Wyoming
Washington, D.C.
A group of kids form a backyard business encoding and decoding secret messages for spies. By George Edward Stanley.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 