Children's Literature Books

The USF Libraries growing Children’s and Young Adult Literature Collections currently include over 25,000 titles of American fiction for adolescent and young readers, dating from 1870 to the present. They provide researchers, teachers, students, and readers the opportunity to study the evolving culture and sociology of American adolescence through the literature written for them.

This digital collection of children’s literature from USF’s Special Collections is just the tip of the iceberg, featuring boys and girls series books from before 1923. This is a growing collection, and more titles will be added over time.

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Bill Bruce of Harvard

Gilbert Patten and Edward A. Poucher
An Island Secret

Earle C. McAllister and J.W. Ferguson Kennedy

Continues the story of Carroll Morse, Sumner Parker, and Val Brandon and the two mysterious ciphers and the adventures in which the boys were involved on account of them.
The Girl in the Case or, A Bolt to Freedom

Nicholas Carter
On Tower Island

Earle C. McAllister
The Young Ambassador or Washington's First Triumph
Fooling the Enemy: A Story of the Siege of Boston

John De Morgan
Into the Jaws of Death, or, The Boys of Liberty at the Battle of Long Island

John De Morgan
On to Quebec, or, With Montgomery in Canada

John De Morgan
The Young Guardsman, or, With Washington in the Ohio Valley

John De Morgan
In Buff and Blue, or, Serving under Old Put

T. C. Harbaugh
The Tory Plot, or, Saving Washington's Life

T. C. Harbaugh
A Call to Duty, or, The Young Guardsman on Detached Service

Lionel Lounsberry
By Order of the Colonel, or, The Captain of the "Young Guardsmen"

Lionel Lounsberry
The Young Patriot, or, The Young Guardsmen at Fort William Henry

Lionel Lounsberry
The King's Messenger, or, The Fall of Ticonderoga

Frank Ralph
From Midshipman to Commodore, or, The Glories of our Infant Navy

Frank Sheridan
A Round Trip to the Year 2000, or, A Flight Through Time

William Wallace Cook

The year is 1903 when a philosopher is being pursued by a detective for a crime he did not commit. He uses a time machine to escape to the year 2000. However society has changed in ways he could never have imagined.
In the Camp of the Creeks

Louis Pendleton and F. A. Carter
Jolly Good Times, or, Child-life on a Farm

Mary P. Wells Smith

Presents a fictionalized account of the early years of Mary P. Wells Smith, who grew up on a farm in the Greenfield meadows from 1848 to 1853. In these stories, Millie Kendall and her brothers Teddy and Ralph have adventures.
The Tour of the Zero Club, or, For Fame and Fortune

Ralph Bonehill
Out with Commodore Decatur, or, The Brave Boys of 1812

Lionel Lounsberry
The Young Financier

William O. Stoddard
In the Hands of the Redcoats

Everett T. Tomlinson

This story is based on incidents from life on board the HMS Jersey during the American Revolution.
Won at West Point, or, An Army Cadet in School and Camp

Lionel Lounsberry
Bright Days for Boys and Girls, Volume 1, No. 4, July 1896

Bright Days Publishing Company

Contents: "Camp and Diamond or, The Outing of the Young Victors" by Ralph Bonehill; "Bound to be an Electrician or, A Clear Head and a Stout Heart" by Arthur M. Winfield; "Leo the Circus Boy or, Life under the Great White Canvas" by T. Barnum; "The Human Owls of La Vendee: An Historical Tale" by D.T. Henty; "Passing the Sentry" by Ralph Harrington; "The Island of Caves or, The Remarkable Adventures of the Bixby Twins" by Edward Stratemeyer; "A Calendar on Your Fingers" by G.C. Snowden; "The Young Florists of Spring Hill or, The New Heliotrope" by Albert Lee Ford; "The Fowler Boys' Fourth and What Came of It" by Edward Ward; "A Mustard Mistake" by Frank Hampton