The We Were There Junior Historical Fiction Series
A good historical novel, if the history it contains is accurate, is a pleasant way to learn about historical events and people. Such a novel tells an exciting story and enables the past to come alive in the reader’s mind. This holds true for both adults and children. Good historical novels are a wonderful supplement to a history curriculum.
In the 1950s through the early 1960s, the publisher Grossett and Dunlap released a series of 36 well-written and accurate historical novels for children covering a broad range of mostly U.S. and some world history. This was called the We Were There series, since each title follows the pattern “We Were There With” a famous person from history or “On” or “At” some historical event. A fictional boy and sometimes girl are inserted into a specific time in history and meet famous people and experience famous events, making the people and events real to the late-elementary to middle-school reader. These books can also be read aloud to younger children. Our library contains about half the volumes in this series, with more to be acquired.
We Were There at Pearl Harbor
When I was in elementary school, I was fascinated by this book and the December 7, 1941 attack that it described. It made me sad to see the devastation of the U.S. Pacific Navy and Army Air Force and the loss of life involved. However, I was inspired by the heroic actions of mostly little-known soldiers, sailors, and pilots as they struggled to fight back. This book generated in me a lifelong interest in World War II history and a lifelong ambition to see Pearl Harbor for myself. After 55 years, at a scientific meeting in Honolulu, I finally got to tour this famous base. It was awe-inspiring and brought back memories of the We Were There at Pearl Harbor book. I hope your children will be fascinated by this famous start to U.S. involvement in World War II, motivated to learn more about this worldwide conflict that still affects today’s world, and inspired to serve their country heroically as those brave men and women did.
We Were There at the Battle of the Alamo
When I was in elementary school, I was drawn to this book and the historical figures involved: the heroes Davy Crockett, James Bowie, William Travis, and Sam Houston, and the villain, General Santa Anna of Mexico. It generated in me a lifelong ambition to see the Alamo for myself. It only took me about 60 years, but in 2025 my wife and I finally traveled to San Antonio and spent an afternoon exploring this famous site. Although I was expecting reality to be somewhat different from what this novel had taught me, I found that the heroes were even more heroic and the villain quite a bit more villainous than I had expected. I hope your children will be equally fascinated by this famous episode in the War for Texan Independence, motivated to find out more for themselves, and inspired to heroically serve their country as these brave men did.
We Were There at the First Airplane Flight
Over the years, the more I have learned about Orville and Wilbur Wright and their 1903 invention of powered, controlled flight, the more impressed I have been by these men. They invented the wind tunnel and generated their own corrected data for wing-lift design, which made their airplane possible. This book tells their story for the child reader, who cannot help but be fascinated by these men and their world-changing accomplishment. Just think: by the 1910s there were World War I fighter planes and bombers, by the 1920s there was airmail transport and ocean crossing, by the 1930s there was commercial air travel, and by 1969—only 66 years after the Wright Brothers’ first famous flight—men landed on the moon. I have stood on the field at Kitty Hawk in the Wright Brothers National Memorial in North Carolina and pictured what it was like on that historic day in 1903. This book will help a child picture this event and hopefully be inspired to imitate their example of creativity, technical expertise, hard work, and perseverance against any odds.
We Were There at the Opening of the Atomic Era
The U.S.–British Manhattan Project during World War II was an intense effort to develop an atomic bomb before Hitler succeeded in making one. Essential to this effort were a number of brilliant physicists who had emigrated to the United States to escape persecution under Hitler and Mussolini. Among them was Enrico Fermi, a brilliant Italian physicist equally skilled in experimental and theoretical science. He fled Italy because his wife, Laura, was Jewish. Fermi played a crucial role in the work in Chicago, where the first controlled nuclear fission chain reaction was demonstrated in late 1942. An uncontrolled nuclear fission chain reaction is what makes an atomic bomb. A controlled nuclear chain reaction gives us atomic reactors, which power our warships, submarines, and about 20% of the electrical needs of the U.S. economy. These reactors also provide the radioisotopes that are so important in medicine and industry. We Were There at the Opening of the Atomic Era focuses on telling the exciting story of this work in Chicago during World War II but also addresses the broader story of the first atomic bomb and the development of nuclear power, all through the eyes of a teenage boy who helps in the work.
We Were There at the Boston Tea Party & We Were There at the Battle of Lexington and Concord
Revolutions that free a people from an oppressive government and then start their own government are common. Revolutions that do not turn into a dictatorship far more oppressive than the original government are extremely rare. Revolutions that create a government of liberty and law that lasts for 250 years never happen—except once, in the case of the American Revolution.
The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the Revolution, with a narrative that has much more to it than simply dumping cases of British tea into Boston Harbor. We Were There at the Boston Tea Party tells this important story in the form of a novel with young participants that makes this key history come alive. Soon after the Boston Tea Party, the conflict with Great Britain broke out into actual war. The start of the fighting came right after Paul Revere’s famous ride, which gave enough warning to the Massachusetts patriots in the towns of Lexington and Concord to enable them to organize and resist the British soldiers. The story of these two towns is unified in one battle, and so it is told together in the book We Were There at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. This book recounts the events leading up to this famous fight and its aftermath in a compelling manner, again through the eyes of fictional young participants.
A child who reads these books will begin to understand and appreciate the sacrifices and personal qualities of the remarkable men and women who gave us our free country—and will want to learn more.
We Were There on the Nautilus
In 1871, Jules Verne, who invented the entire genre of science fiction, wrote his most famous novel, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, whose real “hero” was the Nautilus, an amazing submarine that could travel tens of thousands of miles without refueling and could even navigate completely under the North Polar ice cap. These fictional ideas became real in the 1950s with the design, development, and launching of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first atomic reactor-powered submarine. We Were There on the Nautilus tells the story of this development through a young crew member and the story of the Nautilus’ first cruise, which included passing entirely under the North Polar ice cap. Jules Verne’s novel is great, but the story of the real-life Nautilus, named after the fictional submarine, is even more exciting.
We Were There with Lewis and Clark
If you were to compile a list of the five greatest American explorers, you would have to include Captains Lewis and Clark, who commanded the Corps of Western Discovery from 1804 to 1806. They were commissioned by President Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase, which he had bought for the young United States just two years earlier. This purchase doubled the size of the country but was largely unexplored. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had the task of exploring, cataloging, and trailblazing this enormous territory. They successfully returned after a two-year nonstop adventure with thousands of scientific specimens and new maps that showcased the riches of this new part of the country. Today, if you follow any part of their route through the 15 states that came from the Louisiana Purchase, you will find the names of Lewis and Clark attached to many locations. We Were There with Lewis and Clark tells this tremendously exciting story through the eyes of a boy who joins the expedition to find his missing father.
We Were There at the Battle for Bataan
The opening rounds of World War II in the Pacific against the Japanese did not go at all well for the Americans and their western allies, including Great Britain and the Netherlands. Starting with Pearl Harbor then onto the Philippines, disaster was followed by disaster, and the Japanese Navy and Army seemed unstoppable. In the middle of these failures, the brave defense of the Philippines, doomed to failure, brought out extreme bravery and extreme suffering, especially in the battle for Bataan. We Were There at the Battle for Bataan tells the story of this battle through young fictional eyes. The child reading this book will be both saddened by the loss and suffering but made proud of the brave men, Americans, British, and Filipinos, who never gave up, even in defeat.
We Were There at the Battle of Britain
The opening of World War II in Europe, just like in the Pacific, did not go at all well for the western Allies. France was conquered. Great Britain lost most of its major weapons and supplies and barely saved its soldiers at Dunkirk. The scene was set for the Nazi invasion of Great Britain, once the German Air Force, called the Luftwaffe, destroyed the Royal Air Force (RAF), thus opening up the English Channel for the Nazi invasion fleet. We Were There at the Battle of Britain tells the story of this air war, the largest the world had ever seen to that date. If the RAF failed, the last free bastion in Europe would fall. It is a stirring story of unfailing bravery against heavy odds – Spitfire and Hurricane fighters against Junkers and Messerschmidt bombers - and the RAF did not fail.
We Were There at the Battle of the Bulge
From the early days of World War II in Europe, the odds had turned. The invasion of Europe had taken place at D-Day on June 6, 1944, and the western Allies had the German armies on the run. However, the German army was still powerful, and there was one last major attempt to break apart the Allies and salvage victory – the Battle of the Bulge. This was a last-ditch effort of Germany to break through to Antwerp, Belgium, and destroy the convoys from the U.S., which were supplying the Allies' war effort. We Were There at the Battle of the Bulge tells the story of this desperate battle through the eyes of a fictional child. This battle was full of deception, civilian and soldier bravery, and heroism, and ultimately was a German defeat. However, it was a near-run thing, which comes out in the story of this battle, which was one of the most significant in World War II.