Start with high-confidence 20th century u.s. books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
The Children's Blizzard
David Laskin
One Crazy Summer
Rita Williams-Garcia
Emily of Deep Valley
Maud Hart Lovelace, Vera Neville
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
Gary D. Schmidt
On the Horizon
Lois Lowry, Kenard Pak
Hattie Ever After
Kirby Larson
Rocket Boys
Homer Hickam
Moon Over Manifest
Clare Vanderpool
Chasing Secrets
Gennifer Choldenko
Out of Left Field
Ellen Klages
Hattie Big Sky
Kirsten Potter, Kirby Larson
What Was Pearl Harbor?
Patricia Brennan Demuth, Who HQ
Echo Mountain
Lauren Wolk
Stepping on the Cracks
Mary Downing Hahn
Belle Prater's Boy
Ruth White
Northwind
Gary Paulsen
Fighting for the Forest
P. O’Connell Pearson