Summary

Adventurous historical fiction following young teenagers as they interact with heroic and prominent Christians of the past. Each book includes a short biography and bibliography on each historical person. This section covers the years between 1800-1859 AD and features historical people such as David Livingstone, Harriet Tubman, and the Judsons.

Stats

Genre: Midgrade (8-12 years) adventure/historical fiction 

Series length: Forty books

Violence: Moderate--the stories include martyrdoms and references to things such as burning at the stake, but nothing is graphically or gorily depicted.

Magic/Supernatural: Only occasional supernatural events, often historically verifiable.

Romance: None to very light (e.g. a protagonist attracted to a character of the opposite gender)

Christian/spiritual element: Overt, strong Christian content

Recommendation: Excellent for girls or boys who enjoy history and like adventure stories.

You might like this series if you liked... 
the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis

To Purchase

---

Opening Lines:

As soon as she heard the first pop, pop, pop of the distant muskets, the young mother extinguished the morning fire and closed and barred the cabin's shutters. Maybe, with the cabin closed up, the attackers would think she had fled into the nearby village for safety. She scooped her four-year-old son out of his bed and sat with him in her rocker. By the light of a single lamp she softly sang, 

I see the moon, and the moon sees me.
​God bless the moon, and God bless me. 

Abandoned on the Wild Frontier: Peter Cartwright
United States, 1812-25
by Dave & Neta Jackson

Gilbert Hamilton is left alone on the frontier when his father is killed, and his mother is kidnapped by Sauk Indians during the War of 1812. The orphaned boy is taken to Kentucky to live with his wealthy uncle and aunt on their plantation, but Gilbert will never really be a part of his uncle’s family. Haunted by memories of his mother and feelings of loneliness, Gil attends a camp meeting led by Peter Cartwright, a Methodist circuit-rider evangelist.

The kind-hearted Cartwright allows the boy to move with the Cartwright family to Illinois, where Gil can begin the search for his mother. Settlers in the area have heard rumors of a blue-eyed squaw living among the Sauk. Could she be his mother? As Gil sets out on his quest, he begins to question whether his mother is alive. What if he is too late?
​
Sauk warriors had kidnapped his mother long ago . . . is she still alive?

---

Opening Lines:

Betsey Maxwell wearily trailed behind Loren as her brother dodged the muddy puddles, horse manure, and piles of crates in the narrow London street. Her feet were already cold and wet as water seeped through the holes of her thin leather shoes.

"Hurry up, Betsey!" Loren urged, grabbing her hand. "We're almost at the docks. We gotta get there before they bring the prisoners."

The Thieves of Tyburne Square (Elizabeth Fry)
England, 1817-1818
by Dave & Neta Jackson

Betsey and Loren Maxwell are on their own in early nineteenth-century England after their mother is deported to New South Wales for stealing two silver candlesticks. Faced with few options, the young Maxwells are forced to live and work in a gloomy London workhouse.

Betsey and her brother have a terrible time enduring the harsh treatment and strict rules of the workhouse overseers. Then Loren sees an opportunity to escape, and the pair soon find themselves back on the dangerous streets of London—with only a stolen pouch of money to support them. Their new life takes a disastrous turn when Betsey and Loren are jailed for pickpocketing in Tyburn Square. Betsey is terrified that she’ll never see her brother or mother again, but a visit from a kind Quaker woman named Elizabeth Fry gives her courage. Can this compassionate prison reformer save Betsey and her brother from the gallows in Tyburn Square?
​
Alone and in prison with no one to turn to . . .

---

Opening Lines:

Like a dank fog, the sickness crept from lodge to lodge through the whole village. Even in the other villages and other tribes on the Columbia Plateau, which was cupped between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades, both women and children, old people and great warriors had died from the smallpox in 1782. Those who had recovered displayed rough scars on their faces as though they had done battle with the great porcupine.

Exiled to the Red River: Chief Spokane Garry
United States, 1822-25
by Dave & Neta Jackson

​A great sickness has swept through the Indian nations, killing several of the Spokane tribe and many others from neighboring tribes. The faith of the Spokane is nearly broken when they realize the smallpox epidemic has killed those who believe in the Creator of All as well as those who don’t believe in Him. How can evil men live while good men die? Why should they continue to obey the Creator’s laws if He takes away innocent lives?

But when white-skinned men arrive with the Leaves of Life—a book telling how to get to heaven—the Spokane chief agrees to send Garry, his youngest son, to learn more about God. Garry is confused and uncertain about the reason for his travels, but as he begins the first of four years at the Christian school, he soon realizes the saving grace of God and can’t wait to return to his homeland to share the Good News with the Indian nations.

WHAT CAN GARRY LEARN AT A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL THAT WILL INTEREST THE REST OF HIS PEOPLE?

---

Opening Lines:

Squatting on the open porch of the little bamboo house on the outskirts of the city of Rangoon, Len-Lay didn't see the shadowy figure crouching in the dark below. The house, like many in the country of Burma in 1823, stood off the ground on four-foot-high stilts. Pigs grunted contentedly underneath; scrawny chickens had ceased their endless pecking as night fell and were roosting among the stilts. 

Imprisoned in the Golden City:
Adoniram & Ann Judson
Burma (Myanmar), 1824
by Dave & Neta Jackson

​The two young Burmeze girls had dreaded leaving their father but he told them that the only sfe thing was for the two of them to go live with the American missionaries, Adoniram and Ann Judson. May-Lo and Len-Lay really aren’t sure what the danger is, and they don’t know what to believe about their American foster parents. Could the accusations that the missionaries were English spies be true?

When the Judsons leave the city of Rangoon to establish a mission work in Ava, the Golden City, the girls are taken along on the dangerous river trip that will separate them from their father by 350 miles. Will they ever see him again? Will they even make it to their destination? How will the emperor of Burma respond to Mr. Judson’s petitions to give religious freedom to Christian converts?

Their arrival is followed by eventual disaster. When the British attack the Burmese, all the white foreigners, including Adoniram Judson, are hauled off to the terrible Death Prison. Every clue indicates that the Judsons are spies, and a Burmese-English boy named Myat Rodgers is determined to prove their guilt. Should the girls tell the authorities what they know? Or will they all end up in the Death Prison?
​
Without their father’s help, whom could they trust?

---

Opening Lines:

Perrin Whitman ran into the house and tossed folded copy of the Daily Tribune onto his father's lap. "Is this about Uncle Marcus?" Perrin asked excitedly, brushing a hank of blond hair out of his eyes. 

His father's eyes scanned slowly down the article written by the famous publisher Horace Greeley. "Why, I do believe it is," he said slowly.

Attack in the Rye Grass: Marcus & Narcissa Whitman
United States, 1843-1847
by Dave & Neta Jackson

Perrin Whitman was twelve years old and thrilled to travel by wagon train to Oregon Territory with his missionary aunt and uncle, Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. It was 1843, and life in the wild, unsettled Northwest promised Perrin the adventure he craved—but also the opportunity to witness a fierce and tragic battle for peace and freedom.

Upon their arrival in Oregon, Perrin found an immediate friend in the young Indian girl, Shikam, whose brother would later become the famous Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe. Both Perrin and Shikam had the same goal: keep peace between the white settlers and the Indians. But when another wagon train of emigrants brought measles, the Indians become terrified and angry by the sickness overtaking their people. Will Dr. Whitman be able to cure the Indians before war breaks out?
​
His uncle’s life is in danger, but what can Perrin do?

---

Opening Lines:

Robbie knew something was wrong when he saw his older sister, Margo, sitting on the stoop in the twilight holding baby Mae, her face streaked with tears. Sissy and Tommy, who were five and seven, crowded close to her skirts. 

​"Is it...Papa?" Robbie asked, his mouth dry. 

The Drummer Boy's Battle: Florence Nightingale
Turkey, 1850s
by Dave & Neta Jackson

After their father dies, Robbie Robinson and his older brother, Peter, join the British army in order to make a living for their family. At first, army life is exciting, even fun. Then in 1854, they are sent to Russia to fight in the Crimean War—Peter as a member of the famous Light Horse Brigade and twelve-year-old Robbie as a drummer boy. But the brothers are separated during the doomed charge of the Light Brigade, and Robbie fears for Peter’s life.

An injury to his left hand brings Robbie to Barracks Hospital in Scutari, Turkey, where he hopes to find Peter. Instead he meets Florence Nightingale, a nurse working hard to change for the better the way nurses do their jobs. Robbie becomes Florence’s "right-hand man," running errands, delivering messages, and reporting alarming hospital conditions to her. But the doctors and officers running the hospital want to put a stop to Florence’s improvements. Will Robbie and his friend find a way to succeed in spite of the challenges?
​
Soldiers are dying all around him, and only Florence Nightingale can help save them!

---

Opening Lines:

Leaning over the edge of the rain barrel, Rosebud plunged the wooden bucket into the water. Hauling with all her strength, the girl then heaved the heavy bucket over the edge, spilling half of the water in the process--most of it on herself. 

​Rosebud cussed under her breath, then looked quickly around to see if Mammy had heard. 

Listen for the Whippoorwill: Harriet Tubman
United States, 1853
by Dave & Neta Jackson

​​Living as a slave with her family on an old Maryland plantation in 1853, twelve-year-old Rosebud Jackson had been helping her mother with the cooking for the Big House as long as she could remember. Rosebud’s world seemed like an endless pile of pots and pans to wash, food to prepare, and bread to bake. Her father worked long days in the fields while her fifteen-year-old brother Isaac was the stable boy.

But when a series of tragedies strikes, Rosebud is left alone and very afraid. Her only hope is that the words of her father will come true: "Just listen for the whippoorwill." When the harvest season is over, this sound will be her signal to follow in a desperate attempt to escape her cruel slavery.

On the darkest of nights, Rosebud will meet the mysterious person the slaves called "Moses," who will lead her and other slaves on a harrowing journey toward the North on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman, known as "Moses," was also an escaped slave and became notorious for leading bands of runaways on their dangerous passage to Canada.
​
Will rosebud be able to keep up? Does Harriet Tubman know the way?

---

Opening Lines:

"Chuma! Chuma!"

The urgent call cut through the morning mists that floated along the shore of Lake Shirwa. Why is Wikatani yelling at me again? wondered Chuma. He thought the older boy bossed him around too much, especially so early in the morning. What was the hurry this time? They would get the village sheep to the pasture soon enough, well before the African sun rose high enough to drink the dw drops off the tender blades of grass.

"Chuma, help...!" And then Wikatani's voice was choked off as though he were gagging on a ball of wool.

Escape from the Slave Traders: David Livingstone
Southeast Africa, 1853-1858
by Dave & Neta Jackson

​​An urgent call for help cut through the morning mists that floated along the shore of Lake Shirwa. Two young African boys, Wikatani and Chuma, had been captured by slave traders, but the desperate cry would never reach their village. Easily overpowered by their captors, the boys’ only hope is to endure a ruthless march through the jungles that takes them far from their village to a destination unknown.

Where are the cruel Red Caps taking them? What chance might the boys have to escape? If they manage to escape, how will they ever find their way home again?

Fortunately for Wikatani and Chuma, there is help on the way. David Livingstone, a missionary and British government official, is doing everything he can to put a halt to the slave traders who are devastating southeastern Africa during the 1860s. But is there any reason to hope that he might help two young boys?
​
Will they have the courage to face the phenomenal adventure and peril before them?

---

Opening Lines:

I awoke in a strange bed, and then it came to me: it was September 19, 1853, and I was in Liverpool, England. But I also remembered with a sinking disappointment that Grandfather Thompson was sick in bed and couldn't take me down to the docks.

​Only my grandmother had met me at the train the night before. 

Shanghaied to China: Hudson Taylor
China, 1853-1858
by Dave & Neta Jackson

​​Neil Thompson had promised his grandmother that he would wait for his grandfather to bring him to see the great oceangoing ships at the docks in Liverpool, England. But when he convinced himself that it was okay to go alone, he did not know the danger he would face on that bright morning in September 1853. The docks were no place for a twelve-year-old boy who was alone.

Stopping to admire a small clipper ship, the Dumfries, Neil is suddenly grabbed and dragged aboard the ship, then locked in a small, dark room until the ship is on its way to sea. When he’s finally let out, he discovers he’s been shanghaied to be a cabin boy on a tea clipper bound for China and there’s no chance for escape!

Fortunately for Neil, on board ship is a young missionary, named Hudson Taylor who is also bound for China. But will Taylor’s friendship and faith be able to overcome all the bad things that fall upon Neil’s life?

Will Neil ever make it home? Why should Hudson Taylor help?

---

Opening Lines:

"Back it up, boys! Back it up...whoa!"

The belly-deep voice from outside the alley woke up Kip O'Reilly. Down in the dark cellar of the brick tenement building, the thirteen-year-old boy braced himself for the next sound: hard chunks of coal thundering down the metal chute into the coal bin.

​Uhh. Coal wagon. Saturday morning. Time to get moving.

Roundup of the Street Rovers: Charles Loring Brace
United States, 1854
by Dave & Neta Jackson

​For Kip O'Reilly, life on the streets doesn't seem all that bad. At least he and the other rovers have each other, and that's more than enough to keep them happy--well, as long as they can steal to survive. Just selling newspapers doesn't quite cut it. When Kip is finally caught stealing one morning, he's sent to jail. Fortunately for Kip, Rev. Brace of the Children's Aid Society bails him out, but only on the condition he comes to live at the Boys' Lodging House and starts earning an honest wage.

When the opportunity comes for the children at the society to head west on the "orphan train" in search of families to take them in, Kip is on board. But when they reach the first town, it seems like everyone else is placed except Kip. Will his honesty about his past petty theft keep people from taking him in?
​
ALL HE EVER WANTED WAS A FAMILY. . . .

---

For more Trailblazers, check out these additional years:
Years 1500-1800
Years 1860-1900
Years 1900-1995