Historical Fiction: Immigration to the U.S.

[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.]

Lower Grades

1. A Gift for Gita-Gilmore (2.8/0.5)
2. All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel-Yaccarino (4.2/0.5) (Ellis Island)
3. The American Wei-Pomeranc (2.7/0.5)
4. An Mei’s Strange and Wondrous Journey-Molnar-Fenton (3.8/0.5)
5. At Ellis Island: A History of Many Voices-Peacock (4.0/1)
6. Brothers-Yin (3.1/0.5)
7. Candy Shop-Wahl (2.5/0.5)
8. The Castle on Hester Street-Heller (3.6/0.5)
9. Cooper’s Lesson-Shin (3.9/0.5)
10. Courage to Fly-Harrison (3.6/0.5)
11. Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty-Glaser (5.5/0.5) (1883)
12. Goldfish and Chrysanthemums-Cheng (3.2/0.5)
13. Grandfather’s Journey-Say (3.6/0.5)
14. Grandfather’s Story Cloth-Gerdner (3.4/0.5)
15. Hannah Is My Name-Yang (4.2/0.5)
16. The House on Maple Street-Pryor (3.8/0.5)
17. I Hate English!-Levine (2.7/0.5)
18. Landed-Lee (4.9/1)
19. The Long Way Westward-Sandin (2.9/0.5)
20. The Memory Coat-Woodruff (4.8/0.5) (Russia, Ellis Island)
21. Meow Means Mischief-Nagda (3.3/2)
22. My Chinatown: One Year in Poems-Mak (3.8/0.5)
23. My Dadima Wears a Sari-Sheth (3.5/0.5)
24. My Diary from Here to There-Perez (4.0/0.5)
25. My Feet Are Laughing-Norman (4.0/0.5)
26. My Name Is Yoon-Recorvits (2.3/0.5)
27. The Name Jar-Choi (3.1/0.5) (Korea)
28. Oranges on Golden Mountain-Partridge (4.7/0.5)
29. Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America-James (3.6/0.5)
30. Phan’s Diary-Schofield (3.3/0.5)
31. A Piece of Home-Levitin (2.8/0.5)
32. A Place to Grow-Pak (3.1/0.5)
33. Shu-Li and Tamara-Yee (3.4/1) (China to Canada)
34. Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O’Hara-Woodruff (4.6/0.5)
35. Watch the Stars Come Out-Levinson (2.6/0.5)

 Middle Grades (4-8)

1. Baseball in April and Other Stories-Soto (5.1/4)
2. Call Me Ruth-Sachs (5.1/5) (1908)
3. Chantrea Conway’s Story: A Voyage from Cambodia in 1975-Pastore (4.3/6)
4. Cherub in Stone-Gonzalez (4.9/4) (year 1932)
5. Chicken Foot Farm-Estevis (5.1/6) (Mexican American life 1930’s Texas)
6. Children of the River-Crew (4.3/8)
7. A Coal Miner’s Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska-Bartoletti (5.5/6)
8. A Different Kind of Hero-Blakeslee (4.4/5)
9. The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island-Yep (4.4/4)
10. Dragons of Silk-Yep (5.7/11)
11. A Dream Come True: Coming to America from Vietnam-1975-Cosson (2.9/1)
12. Dreams in the Golden Country:  The Diary of Zipporah Feldman-Lasky* (4.5/4)
13. Escape to Freedom: Coming to America From Cuba-1961 – Cosson (3.0/1)
14. The Escape from Home-Avi (4.7/13)
15. Esperanza Rising-Ryan* (5.3/6)
16. Fiona McGilray’s Story: A Voyage from Ireland in 1849-Pastore (4.2/5)
17. Flight to Freedom– Veciana-Suarez* (5.6/6) (1967)
18. Forbidden Friendship-Weber(4.1/2) (1870’s New England)
19. Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain-Wong (4.5/4) Nonfiction
20. Hanna, the Immigrant-Hart (5.1/5)
21. Hannah’s Journal-Moss (4.7/1.0)*
22. Heart of a Samurai-Preus (5.4/8)
23. Home of the Brave-Applegate (3.5/3) (African refugee)
24. How I Became an American-Gundisch/Skofield (5.9/4) (1902)
25. I Lived on Butterfly Hill-Agosin (4.9/13) (Chilean immigrant)
26. In America’s Shadow-Komatsu (4.9/0.5)
27. In My Family-Lomas Garza (4.7/0.5)
28. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson-Lord* (4.6/4)
29. Inside Out & Back Again-Lai (4.8/2)
30. The Iron Dragon: The Courageous Story of Lee Chin-Pryor (4.9/5)
31. A Jar of Dreams-Uchida (5.0/4) (Depression, Japanese-American)
32. The Journal of Otto Peltonen a Finnish Immigrant-Durbin* (6.0/4) (1905)
33. The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner-Yep* (4.8/6)
34. The Journey of Yung Lee-McCoy-Miller (5.4/6)
35. The Journey of Emilie-Hoehne (4.4/5) (Wisconsin)
36. Journey to America-Levitin (4.7/5)
37. Kai’s Journey to Gold Mountain: An Angel Island Story-Currier (5.0/1) (1934)
38. Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota-Bauer (5.9/7) (year 1873)
39. Land of Promise-Tedrow (4.3/7) (Missouri)
40. Little Cricket-Brown (6.0/7) (1970’s Minnesota)
41. Lord Kirkle’s Money-Avi (4.7/16)
42. Maggie’s Door-Giff (5.0/5)
43. Mei Fuh: Memories from China-Schaeffer (5.2/2)
44. Music for Alice-Say (4.0/0.5)
45. My American Dream-Gallegos (4.0/0.5)
46. My Name Is Aram-Saroyan (not listed in AR)
47. The Orphan of Ellis Island-Woodruff (4.9/5) (1908, Italy)
48. Pacific Odyssey to California, 1905-Lawlor (4.4/6)
49. Paper Daughter-Ingold (5.3/8)
50. A Place for Joey-Harris (3.7/2)
51. The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter: A Julie Mystery-Reiss (5.0/4)
52. Priya’s Project: Coming to America from India-1986-Cosson (3.2/1)
53. Shannon: A Chinatown Adventure-Kudlinski (3.7/1)
54. Shannon: The Schoolmarm Mysteries-Kudlinski (3.9/2)
55. The Sunita Experiment (or The Not-So-Star Spangled Life of Sunita Sen)-Perkins
56. She Flew No Flags-Manley (5.5/9) (1944)
57. Shooting Kabul-Senzai (5.4/7.0) (Afghanistan, 2001)
58. So Far From Home:  The Diary of Mary Driscoll-Denenberg* (4.4/3)
59. Tales from Gold Mountain-Yee (5.2/2)
60. Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story-Shea (4.4/7)
61. The Tequila Worm-Canales (4.6/6)
62. The Trouble Begins-Himelblau (3.6/7)
63. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle-Avi* (5.3/8) (year 1832)
64. The Search for Gold Mountain: Coming to America from China-1850-Cosson (3.0/1)
65. When Jessie Came Across the Sea-Hest (3.2/0.5) (Eastern European)
66. Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear-Namioka (4.6/3)

 Middle Grade+ (6+)

1. Bitter Melon-Chow (4.8/11) (1980’s)
2. The Distance Between Us: Young Reader’s Edition-Grande (5.0/11) (Mexico)
3. Dragon Road-Yep (5.5/10) (1939)
4. Dragonwings-Yep (5.3/10) (1909)
5. Fresh off the Boat-de la Cruz (5.0/7)
6. A Long Walk to Water-Park (5.0/3) (based on true story, 1985 and 2009, Sudan)
7. Lost in America-Sachs (4.5/4)
8. Mountain Light-Yep (4.8/8)
9. The Red Umbrella-Gonzalez (3.8/8) (1961, from Cuba)
10. The Traitor-Yep (4.8/9) (1885, Wyoming)

 Upper Grades (9-12)

1. Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card-Saedi (7.5/11) (CA ’90’s Iran, profanity, sexual situations, and underage drinking)
2. American Street-Zoboi (4.4/11) (Haiti, profanity, sexual references and violence)
3. Boat People-Reiff (2.7/1)
4. Born Confused-Hidier (5.9/23)
5. CrashBoomLove: A Novel in Verse-Herrera (3.6/2)
6. Delfino’s Journey-Harper (4.3/6)
7. The Distance Between Us-A Memoir-Grande (5.4/17) (Mexico, profanity, sexual references, and violence)
8. El Bronx Remembered-Mohr (4.2/6) (Hispanic immigration, short stories)
9. Fifth Chinese Daughter-Wong (8.2/16)
10. The Fire Horse Girl-Honeyman (4.6/12)
11. For Matrimonial Purposes-Daswani (6.4/11)
12. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America-Dumas (7.3/9) NF
13. Girl in Translation-Kwok (5.7/13) (Chinese immigrant, sweat shop)
14. Gringolandia-Miller-Lachman (4.5/10) (Chilean immigrant)
15. Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be an American-Gilllan (6.0/18)
16. The House on Mango Street-Cisneros (4.5/3)
17. Learning to Fly-Yee (3.5/2)
18. The Lonely Queue: The Forgotten History of the Courageous Chinese Americans in Los Angeles-Smith (10.2/5) NF
19. Lovetorn-Daswani (5.1/8)
20. A Mark on History-Schraff (4.9/3) (1865)
21. My Antonia-Cather* (6.9/14)
22. The Namesake-Lahiri (7.2/18)
23. Samurai of Gold Hill-Uchida (5.7/4) (California 1869)
24. The Star Fisher-Yep* (5.2/6) (1920’s)
25. A Step from Heaven-Na (4.2/6)
26. Thousand Pieces of Gold-McCunn (5.6/9)

Photo courtesy of pinchof