Deborah Hopkinson Books in Order

This illustrated account introduces the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. By connecting its present-day activities with the battleship’s destruction during the 1941 attack, it explains the historical significance of a place built to remember the dead.

Taken from her mother and put to work on another plantation, Clara learns to sew and listens carefully to talk of the Underground Railroad. Her quilt becomes a map, and her skill becomes a path toward freedom.

Birdie records life on her family's lighthouse island and learns the work of keeping its beam shining. When her father falls ill during a fierce storm, she must use that knowledge to guide endangered boats.

After emancipation, Ella gains a place at a school for Black children, only to learn it may close for lack of funds. Her singing offers a way to help preserve an education she treasures.

Young Maria dreams of exploring the stars through her father's telescope. Inspired by astronomer Maria Mitchell's childhood, this picture book follows a girl's curiosity and the moment an opportunity to observe the sky brings her ambition closer.

A summer visit to the family farm feels different after Grandma's death, with Gramps grieving and the bluebirds gone. Mags decides to restore the neglected garden, hoping to bring life and comfort back to their home.

Marcia resents losing her role as Mother's kitchen helper when Fannie Farmer arrives to cook for the family. But Fannie's warmth and delicious food draw her in, beginning an unexpected friendship and a new interest in cooking.

With his father defending their Kansas town against proslavery raiders, Charlie must take responsibility for the family’s isolated cabin. A blizzard is approaching and his mother is in labor, testing his ability to help everyone survive.

Charlie Keller’s abolitionist father moves the family from Massachusetts to Kansas to support its admission as a free state. Missing his grandfather and dog, Charlie struggles with the hard work, uncertainty and dangers of prairie life.

When darkness falls, a young enslaved girl leads her family through the woods toward freedom. Stars, silence, and a quilted signal guide them in this tense Underground Railroad story.

Alta Weiss has an extraordinary throwing arm and a determination to play baseball. When a semiprofessional team's coach dismisses her because she is a girl, she sets out to prove that talent matters more than his assumptions.

While Charlie’s father hides from a proslavery sheriff, the family shelters Lizzie, an enslaved girl fleeing toward Canada. Violence across Kansas has disrupted the Underground Railroad, leaving Charlie and his family to protect her until she can escape.

Orphaned Davey saves money to leave a harsh Seattle boardinghouse and find his uncle in Alaska. When his savings vanish amid the Klondike gold rush, he devises a riskier plan to reach the only relative he has left.

Five immigrants' experiences reveal daily life in New York's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. Oral histories follow work, crowded housing, language barriers and danger alongside the hopes that helped young newcomers persevere.

After her family moves west, Anna notices how deeply her mother misses the people and garden they left behind. A packet of seeds suggests a way to offer comfort and make their unfamiliar frontier home feel more welcoming.

Arriving in crowded Dawson City, Davey searches for his uncle while worrying about the abandoned dogs filling the mining town. A spreading fire interrupts his plans and threatens both the community and his hopes of finding family.

A pioneer father insists on taking his beloved fruit trees west along with his family. His daughter Delicious helps protect the precious cargo through rivers, storms and drought in this tall tale inspired by a real journey.

Told through a boy watching from below, this book follows the workers who raised the Empire State Building during the Great Depression. It makes the scale, danger, and speed of the project feel real.

Davey continues his search for his uncle by preparing to cross the dangerous Chilkoot Trail toward the Klondike. When his photographer companion falls ill during the journey, unexpected help becomes essential to keeping their expedition alive.

During the Civil War, a Pennsylvania boy named Billy Bayly forms an unexpected friendship with a Southern soldier. Based on a real encounter, this early-reader story introduces young readers to people divided by the conflict.

Johnny welcomes a chance to escape slavery by joining the Union army, but soldiering proves harder than he expected. When his comrades need help, he must decide whether he can meet the responsibilities of his new life.

John Adams prefers life at home with his family, but his commitment to independence repeatedly draws him away. This early-reader account follows his efforts to help the thirteen colonies break from British rule and establish a nation.

During the Great Depression, Davey learns that his neighbor’s strawberry farm faces a bank auction. With a penny and help from friends, family, and neighbors, he joins an effort to keep her from losing her home.

Susan B. Anthony's education helps her recognize the unequal rights granted to women. This introduction for young readers follows her determination to challenge those restrictions and her lifelong work toward women's right to vote.

Nearly twelve, Nicholas Dray finds a sense of security in San Francisco after leaving the cotton fields behind. The earthquake and fires of 1906 force him to choose between escaping the destruction and risking his life to help others.

Through oral histories and photographs, Hopkinson explores the lives of people who worked in America's cotton industry. Enslaved laborers, sharecroppers and mill workers reveal how the demands of cotton shaped childhoods, families and the nation's economy.

When racism prevents Marian Anderson from singing at Constitution Hall, public official Oscar Chapman helps arrange a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. This picture book connects his lifelong opposition to prejudice with a defining musical event.

Long before Abraham Lincoln became president, a childhood expedition with his friend Austin Gollaher put him in danger. This picture book retells an incident at a creek and considers the importance of a friend's actions.

The Obama family settles into the White House, a building that serves as home, workplace and public institution. This picture book follows presidential responsibilities alongside gardening, pets and the everyday routines of two young daughters.

As a Texas boy, John Lomax collects the songs he hears cowboys sing. Years later, he travels with recording equipment to preserve those voices, turning a childhood fascination into work that helps safeguard American folk music.

Matthew Henson's longing for adventure carries him from a difficult childhood to polar exploration with Robert Peary. This picture-book biography follows the hardships and persistence of the expedition that made its final push toward the North Pole.

This picture book introduces Michelle Obama as a professional, mother, and public figure committed to service. Her family roles and work provide young readers with a portrait of the woman whose life reached the White House.

Sal can ride, fish, sing, and drive a stagecoach, but delivering the mail alone gives her parents cause to worry. With the notorious Poetic Pete robbing travelers, she must find a clever way to stay safe.

Charles Darwin’s daughter Etty would rather explore outdoors than stay inside baking. Told through her eyes, this fictional account of family life follows Darwin and his children as they investigate the natural world in their own backyard.

Young Charles Dickens works long hours in a London factory while struggling to hold onto his dreams. This fictionalized account of his childhood connects hardship, imagination and the people who helped shape his later stories.

Annie Sullivan arrives to teach Helen Keller, seeking ways to help her understand and use language. Drawing on Sullivan's letters, this picture book follows their difficult early work and the communication that gradually connects Helen with others.

Accounts from passengers, crew members and rescuers trace Titanic’s journey from its launch to its sinking. Photographs and historical documents place individual experiences at the center of the disaster, revealing decisions made as the ship went down.

With his father serving overseas during World War I, Mikey wants to make a meaningful contribution. He initially dismisses a school knitting project, until a competition challenges him to learn a skill he thought was only for girls.

When cholera strikes London in 1854, orphan Eel and his friend Florrie help Dr. John Snow investigate its source. Gathering evidence against the accepted explanation becomes a race to protect their neighborhood from the worsening epidemic.

After Nazi forces occupy Denmark, ordinary people begin taking extraordinary risks to resist. Through individual accounts, Hopkinson follows spies, saboteurs and rescuers whose actions helped protect thousands of Jewish people and challenge the occupation.

Young Beatrix Potter borrows a neighbor's guinea pig to practice drawing, but the visit goes disastrously wrong. Told as a picture letter, this mostly true story introduces the future author through an embarrassing childhood mistake.

Drawing on sailors' accounts, photographs and naval records, Hopkinson explores American submarine warfare in the Pacific during World War II. The book follows dangerous missions and the daily realities of crews fighting beneath the surface.

New to a seaside town, Viv discovers a problem affecting nesting sea turtles. Working with classmates and neighbors, she helps organize a response that shows how careful observation and community action can protect vulnerable wildlife.

When Missouri bans education for Black students, James fears losing his school. His teacher, Reverend John Berry Meachum, searches for a way around the restriction, turning a steamboat into an unexpected place to keep learning.

A former student writes to the teacher who understood her restless behavior and difficulty with reading. Recalling patient encouragement and memorable classroom moments, she explains how that relationship helped change the direction of her life.

In a lively reimagining of early America, Amelia Simmons brings order and inventive cooking to a busy household. Her talent leads to a celebration of independence and the beginnings of the country's first American cookbook.

Personal accounts introduce young readers to the soldiers, sailors and specialists who took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy. The book follows the planning, secrecy and human challenges behind the operation intended to liberate occupied Europe.

Before becoming a novelist, Jane Austen is a quiet girl who reads widely and watches the people around her. This picture-book biography follows how observation, humor and determination help her develop a distinctive way of telling stories.

Prince Siddhartha grows up sheltered from suffering within his father’s palace, yet longs to understand the world beyond it. His search for answers leads toward compassion, peace, and the path that will make him the Buddha.

As a boy, Carter G. Woodson reads the newspaper to his father and later to fellow miners. Their questions encourage his pursuit of knowledge, leading toward a life devoted to preserving and sharing Black history.

In wartime London, Bertie Bradshaw discovers a coded notebook after a young woman disappears. With help from an American girl and a Jewish refugee, he must decipher its secrets before a double agent can betray the Allies.

A girl adjusting to a new country notices that monarch butterflies are disappearing from her community. Her concern grows into a conservation project, connecting her own search for belonging with efforts to help these migrating creatures.

A young girl moves through an ordinary day with her family, noticing sounds, sensations and feelings. This picture book introduces mindfulness through small moments of attention, gratitude, patience and care for the people around her.

After witnessing the Triangle factory fire, Frances Perkins commits herself to improving workers' lives. This picture-book biography follows her path into government and her role in creating Social Security as the first woman in a presidential cabinet.

Jewish children escape Nazi persecution through the Kindertransport, leaving their families for unfamiliar lives in Britain. Survivors’ accounts reveal the fear, separation and adjustments behind the rescue effort, alongside the worsening danger faced by those left behind.

This picture-book biography introduces Betty White through her work as a television performer and comedian. It celebrates her long entertainment career alongside her enthusiasm for animals and the humor that connected her with generations of viewers.

This picture-book biography introduces Dolly Parton's journey from a childhood with little money to a career in music and entertainment. It also highlights her generosity and commitment to helping children discover books and reading.

This illustrated history introduces young readers to devastating disease outbreaks, including the plague that swept medieval Europe. Accounts of past pandemics explore how people responded and how lessons from earlier crises can inform the challenges of disease today.

A child wants to write a story, but the words refuse to come. Crumpled pages and false starts give way to inspiration in this picture book about persistence, imagination and finding confidence in one's own voice.

Young Jewish people faced hiding, separation, imprisonment and resistance during the Holocaust. Through interviews and archival material, Hopkinson recounts individual survival stories, preserving their experiences and emphasizing the choices people made amid persecution.

On the way to a tree-planting ceremony, a girl introduces her friends to Earth's place in the universe. From galaxies to living creatures, the journey connects scientific wonder with the importance of caring for our shared planet.

Beginning with the devastating Peshtigo and Chicago fires of 1871, this history follows Americans’ changing struggle against fire. Witness accounts, photographs and scientific perspectives connect earlier disasters with modern wildfires and the growing pressures of climate change.

The hurricane that devastated Galveston in 1900 anchors this account of destructive storms and the people caught in them. Historical experiences introduce young readers to the dangers of hurricanes and the continuing challenges of anticipating their effects.

Fred the mouse tells his version of Cinderella's adventure after being transformed into a coach horse. Familiar magical events lead toward an unexpected ending in which Cinderella chooses the future and partner she wants for herself.

This illustrated introduction presents Jonas Salk and his work developing a vaccine against polio. Written for young readers, it connects an important scientific achievement with the life of the researcher behind it.

This introduction to Earth Day explains the celebration’s history and why caring for the planet matters. Children discover practical activities they can try with their families, including composting, growing vegetables and creating shelters for insects.

American and Filipino prisoners endure the Bataan Death March and brutal captivity during World War II. As the war shifts, Army Rangers undertake a perilous rescue mission to reach prisoners whose lives remain in immediate danger.

Aspiring playwright Emilia Bassano meets young Will Shakespeare while trying to enter a theater. After uncovering a plot against Queen Elizabeth I, she travels to Mary Stuart’s place of captivity to investigate and help prevent an assassination.

As World War II nears its end, the Spanish Riding School's Lipizzaner horses face destruction. This account follows the horsemen and American soldiers who cross wartime divisions to rescue the animals and preserve the school.