The Eagle of the Ninth. 1400 Grundwörter.
by Rosemary Sutcliff
Middle grade · ages 10–14 · grades 5–9 · 820L · 362 pages · 1988
Why we'd hand it over
The gold standard of historical adventure for this age—Sutcliff's prose is genuinely literary, the world-building is rigorous, and Marcus's disabled protagonist arc (written in 1954, still ahead of most books now) teaches courage without sentimentality.