Books like 'Chains'
Readers who enjoyed Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson & Madisun Leigh also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure military, war & conflict historical-fiction war slavery children realistic poc-mc family
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 63 ratingsLibrarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found hereIt is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship high-school historical-fiction -
![The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron]()
The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe extraordinary story of Stefania Podgorska, a Polish teenager who chose bravery and humanity by hiding thirteen Jews in her attic during WWII -- from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron.One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make..Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family friendship high-school historical-fiction realistic survival -
![Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine]()
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA stirring, dramatic story of a slave who mails himself to freedom by a Jane Addams Peace Award-winning author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning artist.Henry Brown doesn't know how old he is. Nobody keeps records of slaves' birthdays. All the time he dreams about freedom, but that dream seems farther away than ever when he is torn from his family and put to work in a warehouse... -
![Pink y Say by Patricia Polacco]()
Pink y Say by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor use in schools and libraries only. Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author's great-great-grandfather...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic slavery social-commentary -
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![Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris]()
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsIn this follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again. Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers... -
![Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz]()
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSurvive. At any cost.10 concentration camps.10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly.It's something no one could imagine surviving.But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face.As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him... -
![Refugee by Alan Gratz]()
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsJOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . .MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc -
![The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel by Sejal Badani, Soneela Nankani]()
The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel by Sejal Badani, Soneela Nankani
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsAn Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream.Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake... -
![Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys]()
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsLina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship high-school historical-fiction realistic -
![I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys]()
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRomania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer...Categorized as:
coming-of-age espionage family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc political-intrigue realistic -
![Broken Angels by Gemma Liviero]()
Broken Angels by Gemma Liviero
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA Nazi doctor. A Jewish rebel. A little girl. Each one will fight for freedom—or die trying. Imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, Elsi discovers her mother’s desperate attempt to end her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with the impossibility of their situation. Risking her own life, Elsi joins a resistance group to sabotage the regime... -
![Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson]()
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsCalled “wholly engrossing” by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive” (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life... -
![Then by Morris Gleitzman]()
Then by Morris Gleitzman
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFelix and Zelda have escaped the train to the death camp, but where do they go now? They're two runaway kids in Nazi-occupied Poland. Danger lies at every turn of the road. With the help of a woman named Genia and their active imaginations, Felix and Zelda find a new home and begin to heal, forming a new family together... -
![Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim]()
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsMattie was never truly mine. That knowledge must have filled me as quickly and surely as the milk from her breasts. Although my family ‘owned’ her, although she occupied the center of my universe, her deepest affections lay elsewhere. So along with the comfort of her came the fear that I would lose her some day. This is our story.. -
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![For All Their Lives by Fern Michaels]()
For All Their Lives by Fern Michaels
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the wildly beloved bestselling author Fern Michaels, a haunting portrait of love and war—and the passionate woman swept into an epic of desire, heartbreak, and destiny. Casey Adams, a dedicated nurse, loses her heart overseas to idealistic officer Mac Carlin, the rebellious scion of a wealthy family. Then tragedy strikes... -
![Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz]()
Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsInfiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage.World War II is raging. Michael O'Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth.But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies. Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama espionage family friendship high-school historical-fiction -
![Where the Sky Begins by Rhys Bowen]()
Where the Sky Begins by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA woman’s future is determined by fate and choice in a gripping WWII novel about danger, triumph, and second chances by the New York Times bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Tuscan Child.London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’s world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war drama friendship espionage female-mc family political-intrigue -
![After by Morris Gleitzman]()
After by Morris Gleitzman
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA Holocaust survival story that combines hopeful melancholy with gentle humourFollowing a heartbreaking struggle to survive as a Jewish child in Germany, Felix faces perhaps his greatest challenge—to find hope when he's lost almost everything.As Europe goes through the final agonizing stages of the war, Felix struggles to reconcile hatred and healing... -
![A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park]()
A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsCherished by millions of readers, this #1 New York Times best-selling novel is a powerful tale of perseverance and hope. Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park interweaves the stories of two Sudanese children who overcome mortal dangers to improve their lives and the lives of others...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc -
![We Are Not Free by Traci Chee]()
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II. Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco... -
![A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen]()
A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWith the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself... -
![Soon by Morris Gleitzman]()
Soon by Morris Gleitzman
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter the Nazis took my parents I was scared. After they killed my best friend I was angry. After I joined the partisans and helped defeat the Nazis I was hopeful. Soon, I said, we'll be safe. I was wrong.Soon continues the incredibly moving story of Felix, a Jewish boy still struggling to survive in the wake of the liberation of Poland after the end of World War Two... -
![Hearts of Resistance by Soraya M. Lane]()
Hearts of Resistance by Soraya M. Lane
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAt the height of World War II, three women must come together to fight for freedom, for the men they love—and for each other. When Hazel is given the chance to parachute into Nazi-occupied France, she seizes the opportunity to do more for the British war effort than file paperwork. Alongside her childhood friend, French-born Rose, she quickly rises up the ranks of the freedom fighters...Categorized as:
drama espionage family female-mc friendship historical-fiction political-intrigue war -
![Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson]()
Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsReturn to the American Revolution in the conclusion to the Seeds of America trilogy.As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon have narrowly escaped Valley Forge--but their relief is short-lived. Before long they are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down... -
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![Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh]()
Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFourteen-year-old Ahmed is stuck in a city that wants nothing to do with him. Newly arrived in Brussels, Belgium, Ahmed fled a life of uncertainty and suffering in Aleppo, Syria, only to lose his father on the perilous journey to the shores of Europe. Now Ahmed’s struggling to get by on his own, but with no one left to trust and nowhere to go, he’s starting to lose hope...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
![Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jesse Vilinsky]()
Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jesse Vilinsky
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsChaya Lindner is a teenager living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Simply being Jewish places her in danger of being killed or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents all but give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference...Categorized as:
children family friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
![The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco]()
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSince the Tall Boots--the Nazis--have marched into Monique's small French village, terrorizing it, nothing surprises her. Until the night Monique encounters "the little ghost" sitting at the end of her bed... -
![The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri]()
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe unforgettable love story of a mother blinded by loss and her husband who insists on their survival as they undertake the Syrian refugee trail to Europe.Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo--until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape... -
![Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate]()
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsKek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice, and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter – cold and unkind.In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing. Kek is on his own... -
![Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein]()
Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction… As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer, Hetty Heinrich is keen to play her part in the glorious new Thousand Year Reich... -
![America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray]()
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction realistic slavery -
![All We Have Left by Wendy Mills]()
All We Have Left by Wendy Mills
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo girls. Two lives. One event that changed them—and the world—forever.Now: Sixteen-year-old Jesse is used to living with the echoes of the past. After her older brother died in the September 11th attacks, her dad filled their home with anger and grief. When Jesse gets caught up with the wrong crowd, one thoughtless decision turns her life upside down...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic -
![The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate]()
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsA new novel inspired by historical events: a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students' lives...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction realistic slavery -
![Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler]()
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsCalling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship. Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one... -
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![Code of Honor by Alan Gratz]()
Code of Honor by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLive by the code. Die by the code?Kamran Smith has it all. He’s the star of the football team, dates the most popular girl, and can’t wait to enlist in the army like his big brother, Darius. Although Kamran’s mother is from Iran, Kamran has always felt 100% American. Accepted.And then everything implodes.Darius is accused of being a terrorist. Kamran refuses to believe it... -
![What Only We Know by Catherine Hokin]()
What Only We Know by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA door slammed and the unmistakable sound of boots came crashing up the hall. Liese held her little daughter’s hand so tightly, the tiny fingers had turned purple. The SS officer’s hand was at Liese’s throat before she saw him move. ‘I can kill you easily, then I can kill your daughter.’ He relaxed his grip a little. ‘Or perhaps I could kill her first?’England, forty years later... -
![When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler]()
When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA novel about three childhood friends living during the Second World War whose fates are closely intertwined, even when their lives take very different courses.Three friends. Two sides. One memory.Vienna. 1936... -
![They Went Left by Monica Hesse]()
They Went Left by Monica Hesse
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsGermany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction realistic -
![Moloka'i by Alan Brennert]()
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsSet in Hawai'i more than a century ago, this is the story of Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, who dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic -
![Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar]()
Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“Angels of the Resistance brings to life a deadly-effective and deeply moving sisterhood.” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose CodeFrom the bestselling author of The Flight Girls comes a story inspired by true events, about courageous women who risked everything for country, for family, and for each other...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family female-mc friendship historical-fiction survival war 20th-century -
![Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson]()
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsWould you risk everything to be free?The young soldiers at Valley Forge are suffering from hunger, cold, and the threat of the British army. Their newly forged bonds of friendship might be enough to help them survive. But the chains of Curzon's past threaten to shackle him again.Surrounded by the fires of ignorance, mistrust, and greed, Curzon can't risk sharing his deadly secrets with anyone...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic sad -
![The Wall by Eve Bunting]()
The Wall by Eve Bunting
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial... -
![My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War by L.A. Meyer]()
My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War by L.A. Meyer
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe infamous pirate, riverboat seductress, master of disguise, and street-urchin-turned-sailor Jacky Faber has been captured by the French and beheaded in full view of her friends and crew.Inconceivable? Yes! The truth is she’s secretly forced to pose as an American dancer behind enemy lines in Paris, where she entices a French general into revealing military secrets—all to save her dear friends... -
![Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen, آرزو قلیزاده]()
Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen, آرزو قلیزاده
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDanger is never far from Audra's family farm in Lithuania. She always avoids the occupying Russian Cossack soldiers, who insist that everyone must become Russian -- they have banned Lithuanian books, religion, culture, and even the language. But Audra knows her parents are involved in something secret and perilous...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
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![Jessica by Bryce Courtenay]()
Jessica by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratings'A superb storyteller ... it is impossible not to be impressed by Courtenay's talents' - The Times JESSICA is based on the real life of a remarkable young Australian woman who defied the conventions of her time. She had a stubborn streak and the courage to act out her convictions ... in spite of the consequences... -
![When We Were Young & Brave by Hazel Gaynor]()
When We Were Young & Brave by Hazel Gaynor
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTheir motto was to be prepared, but nothing could prepare them for war. . .The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home sets her unforgettable new novel in China during WWII, inspired by true events surrounding the Japanese Army’s internment of teachers and children from a British-run missionary school.China, December 1941...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction realistic -
![The Golden Doves by Martha Hall Kelly]()
The Golden Doves by Martha Hall Kelly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwo former female spies, bound together by their past, risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi doctor in the aftermath of World War II—an extraordinary novel inspired by true events from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac GirlsAmerican Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become...Categorized as:
espionage family female-mc historical-fiction political-intrigue war 20th-century action-adventure -
![Number the Stars by Lois Lowry]()
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 81 ratingsTen-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family female-mc friendship high-school historical-fiction -
![In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez]()
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsSet during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family female-mc high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic -
![The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe]()
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsBased on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz...
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