The Historical Novel Society lists mainstream and small press titles for readers aged 4 – 18, with settings from ancient times to the mid 1970s.
Details are pulled from publisher catalogues and websites; Amazon; NetGalley; Publishers Weekly forecasts; Edelweiss US Trade and BNCCatalist Canada Trade. The age suitability is publisher recommended.
Information is compiled by Fiona Sheppard (US, CAN, UK, ANZ).
See our guide to forthcoming children’s and YA historical novels for 2025 for the previous year’s releases.
For adult titles, see our guides to forthcoming historical novels for 2026 and for 2025.
Other than short excerpts, please link to this page rather than copying the entries – thank you!
This list is updated every 4-6 weeks, so please visit us again for more titles!
Last update: July 1, 2025
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
January 2026
Avi, The Road From Nowhere, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (inside one of America’s most troubled periods of economic crisis, an adventure and a big-hearted tale of boyhood)
Victoria Chang, Eureka, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (BYR), Eureka, Age 8-12 (in San Francisco, 1885, as the world around her grows scarier, Mei Mei discovers her own power, as well the joy of found family)
Ryan Douglass, The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay, Putnam BfYR, YA (set in 1920s Harlem Renaissance, Nick Carrington and Jay Gatsby’s paths intertwine in both their passion for each other and anger at a society that is set to destroy them)
Sharon G. Flake, Hattie Mae Begins Again, Knopf BfYR, Age 8-12 (story about a southern girl far from home at an elite boarding school in the north; set against the backdrop of the great migration in South Philly)
Susan McClelland and Nataliia Mariichyn, Honor, Astra YR, YA (recounts the tale of a Ukrainian teen in the early 2010s and a Jewish boy in hiding during WWII, whose lives are entwined through a box of letters)
February 2026
Elle Grenier, This Wretched Beauty, Feiwel & Friends, YA (in this Dorian Gray gender-bending remix, set in London 1867, a conflicted young aristocrat spirals down a path to the worst possible version of themselves)
Sara Pennypacker, illus. John Klassen, The Lions’ Run, Balzer + Bray, Age 8-12 (novel about an orphan during WWII who discovers unexpected courage within himself when he becomes involved with the Resistance)
Gloria Steinem and Leymah Gbowee, illus. Kah Yangni, Rise, Girl, Rise, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (feminist organizer Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee share their parallel journeys as activists)
March 2026
Jennifer A. Nielsen, Magnitude, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (story of the fight for survival during the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and the race to find survivors)
Hooda Shawa, trans. Nour Jaluli, trans. Sawad Hussain, Velvet Box Letters, Restless Books/Yonder, YA (explores how young Palestinians in the diaspora can redefine their stories while reclaiming the legacy of their forebears)
Mindy Nichols Wendell, California or Dust, Holiday House, Age 8-12 (story of eleven-year-old Meadowlark Jensen whose family has fled the Oklahoma Dust Bowl in hopes of finding a better life in California)
Diane Zahler, The Queen’s Granddaughter, Roaring Brook Press, Age 8-12 (follows 12-year-old Blanca of Castile who, as the next princess of France, must learn how to follow in the footsteps of her grandmother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine)
April 2026
James Lincoln Collier, After My Brother Sam, Scholastic, Age 9-12 (sequel picks up the story of My Brother Sam Is Dead in an examination of patriotism, family, and what it means to be an American)
Cathie Pelletier, Evangeline’s Journey, Down East Books, YA (prose retelling of Longfellow’s poem tells the fictional story of a girl who searches for her lost love amid the 1755 expulsion of the Acadians from maritime Canada)
Nikki Shannon Smith, Deep Secrets, Scholastic, Age 9-12 (a story of the Titanic, family, survival, and the secrets we hide from those we love)
May 2026
S.C. Bandreddi, The Game of Oaths, Candlewick/Walker, YA (adventure of revenge set in a Belle Epoque Paris magical circus led by a ruthless enchanteur)
June 2026
July 2026
August 2026
Andrew Varga, Ordeal at Orleans, Imbrifex, YA (in Jump in Time book 5, time-travelling teens, Dan and Sam are transported to medieval France during the Siege of Orleans and the triumph of Joan of Arc)
