Best Historical Fiction Books for 4th Grade

Fourth graders curious about the past can start here, with stories set everywhere from the years before the Civil War to the Great Depression. Christopher Paul Curtis's Elijah of Buxton follows the first child born free in a Canadian settlement founded by people who escaped slavery, and L.M. Elliott's Bea and the New Deal Horse pairs a struggling Depression-era farm with a girl's bond with a difficult horse. Several titles on this page won the Scott O'Dell Award, which honors historical fiction for young readers.