Books like Under the hawthorn tree
Under the hawthorn tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna reads as poignant, hopeful. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.
What Under the hawthorn tree is like to read
A harrowing but child-accessible journey story: three siblings walk out of famine-era Ireland toward a distant hope, with survival stakes weighted by grief and sibling loyalty. Best for: middle-grade and YA readers seeking an emotionally serious historical survival story about the Irish Famine.
Banana heart summer
Merlinda C. Bobis · 2005
Shares the escape thread
Esperanza Rising
Pam Muñoz Ryan · 2000
A wealth-to-poverty reversal told in warm, accessible prose, tracing a proud girl's slow humbling into resilience amid Depression-era farm camps.
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Patricia Reilly Giff · 2002
Shares the escape thread
The clay marble
Minfong Ho · 1991
A young girl's separation from her family in a Cambodian refugee camp anchors a quietly harrowing coming-of-age story, where survival and courage matter more than spectacle.
The Silver Sword
Ian Serraillier · 1956
Three orphaned siblings navigate Nazi-occupied Warsaw and a long trek across ruined Europe through courage and makeshift family bonds — a propulsive, emotionally intense survival narrative grounded in true accounts.
Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys · 1999
A harrowing account of Stalin-era deportation seen through a fifteen-year-old artist's eyes — bleak in circumstance but sustained by family love, hope, and small acts of creative resistance.
Daniel's story
Carol Matas · 1993
A young narrator's first-person account of the Nazi rise, deportation, and camp survival — a somber, direct testimony aimed at younger readers, emotionally heavy but framed for classroom use.
Out of the Dust
Karen Hesse · 1997
A verse novel told in spare, first-person vignettes that let dust, hunger, and grief accumulate quietly on the page.
Under the feet of Jesus
Helena María Viramontes · 1995
A lyrical, image-dense coming-of-age set in the fields of California, where a girl's first love and dawning defiance push against the invisibility of farmworker life.
The Breadwinner
Deborah Ellis · 2000
A tense, plainspoken survival story told at a child's eye level, where the daily risk of discovery carries the weight of larger political violence.
Sounder
William Howard Armstrong · 1971
A quiet, sorrowful story of a Black sharecropper's son whose world narrows to hardship and the companionship of a loyal dog.
El viento conoce mi nombre
Isabel Allende · 2023
A tender, sorrowful dual-timeline novel that moves between two displaced children's lives, built to move readers emotionally through parallel loss and resilience.
About Under the hawthorn tree — what the genome says
Is Under the hawthorn tree a complete story or a cliffhanger?
It's a complete, standalone-satisfying story.
How scary is Under the hawthorn tree?
Mildly eerie — tension without real scares.
Who is Under the hawthorn tree for?
It's young adult — teen protagonists with crossover appeal.
Find your next read by its genome
Tell Novelome one book you love — get recommendations tuned to your taste, including the ones other sites never surface.
Start free →More readalikes: Books like THE LET THEM THEORY · Books like EXTREME OWNERSHIP · Books like WINGS OF STARLIGHT · Books like DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK, EXPANDED EDITION · Books like I WILL TEACH YOU TO BE RICH, SECOND EDITION · Books like FAKE SKATING · Books like THE CREATIVE ACT · Books like IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER