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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas By John Boyne 240 pages When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. (Random House Children's Books)
Someone Named Eva By Joan M. Wolf 200 pages When resistance fighters assassinated the highest ranking Nazi officer in Czechoslovakia, Hitler sought revenge on the small village of Lidice. All 173 men and teenage boys were executed while the women were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Ten Lidice children, who exemplified Aryan traits, were selected for "Germanization." They were sent to Lebensborn training centers, forced to speak only German, given new names, and indoctrinated into the Nazi ideology. They were then adopted by German families. The rest of the children of Lidice were gassed. Based on extensive research and interviews with survivors, Wolf tells the heart-wrenching story of the fictional Milada, who is sent to a Lebensborn center and adopted by the commandant of Ravensbruck. Readers are quickly immersed into her character, gaining a painful understanding of her intense struggle to hold onto her true self and identity. Students who have read stories of Jewish persecution and survival during the Holocaust will be enlightened by this portrait of how Hitler's Final Solution affected these innocent children. This amazing, eye-opening story, masterfully written, is an essential part of World War II literature and belongs on the shelves of every library.
When My Name Was Keoko By Linda Sue Park 208 pages Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul are proud of their Korean heritage. Yet they live their lives under Japanese occupation. All students must read and write in Japanese and no one can fly the Korean flag. Hardest of all is when the Japanese Emperor forces all Koreans to take Japanese names. Sun-hee and Tae-yul become Keoko and Nobuo. Korea is torn apart by their Japanese invaders during World War II. Everyone must help with war preparations, but it doesn't mean they are willing to defend Japan. Tae-yul is about to risk his life to help his family, while Sun-hee stays home guarding life-and-death secrets. (Random House Children's Books)
Hiroshima By Laurence Yep 56 pages Through a stacatto, present-tense narration that moves back and forth between the experiences of a 12-year-old girl and the men on the Enola Gay, Yep's novella tells the events of the day the first atomic bomb was dropped and its aftermath. Sachi survives but is badly burned; her sister dies and her soldier father is killed in action. For three years the girl spends most of her time indoors, as newcomers to the city fear the scarred survivors. Then she travels to America for plastic surgery, which enables her to take part in her society again. She returns to Japan, hoping to help other victims. Yep ends with two chapters on the destructive potential of nuclear warfare and on some of the efforts being made toward disarmament. His words are powerful and compelling, and the facts he presents make readers realize the horrors of that day and its impact beyond. (School Library Journal)
Number the Stars By Lois Lowry 137 pages Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life. (Random House Children's Books)
T4 By Anne Claire LeZotte 112 pages Thirteen-year-old Paula Becker is Deaf during a time when people with disabilities are ordered to be killed in Hitler's Tiergartenstrasse 4, T4. Through the help of a priest, she is hidden on the farm of a retired teacher and, when almost discovered, is moved to a homeless shelter in a church until she can return home. Telling her story through first-person free-verse poems, she draws readers into her world, sharing her fear, desperation, and uncertainty as she struggles to survive. Even though this is a short and quick read, this novel will have a lasting effect on readers, giving insight into an often-forgotten aspect of the horrors of the Third Reich. The unique writing style makes this a good choice for reluctant as well as proficient readers.
Torn Thread By Anne Isaacs 188 pages Young Eva was with her father and sister, Rachel, when the Nazis forced them into a ghetto. Rachel was sent to a work camp in Czechoslovakia, and the father made a decision to send Eva there as well, thinking the two of them together would give them a better chance of survival, since they could look out for each other. He tells Eva to seize every opportunity to extend their lives, even for one hour, and in that way perhaps they can survive the war. Again and again, in the two years of their experience in the work camp, the sisters use that advice from their father. And miraculously, when the Nazis are defeated and the Russians liberate their camp, the young sisters are still alive (just barely) and they live to eventually immigrate to Canada and raise families. The work camp had terrible conditions: sickness, starvation, and brutal fatigue killed many of the workers. (KLIATT)
Elephant Run By Roland Smith 336 pages In 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick Freestone lives in with his mother. Deciding the situation in England is too unstable, Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma, hoping he will be safer living on the family's teak plantation. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village. Japanese soldiers invade, and Nick's father is taken prisoner. Nick is stranded on the plantation, forced to work as a servant to the new rulers. As life in the village grows more dangerous for Nick and his young friend, Mya, they plan their daring escape. Setting off on elephant back, they will risk their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese POW camp. In this thrilling journey through the jungles of Burma, Roland Smith explores the far-reaching effects of World War II, while introducing readers to the fascinating world of wild timber elephants and their mahouts.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit By Judith Kerr 192 pages Anna was only nine years old in 1933, too bust with her school work and friends to take much notice of Adolf Hitler's face glaring out of political posters all over Berlin. Being Jewish, she thought, was just something you were because your parents and grandparents were Jewish, But then one day her father was unaccountable, frighteningly missing. Soon after, she and her brother, Max, were hurried out of Germany by their mother with alarming secrecy. Reunited in Switzerland, Anna and her family embark on an adventure that woul go on for years, in several different countries. They learn many new things: new languages, how to cope with the wildest confusions, and how to be poor. Anna soon discovers that there are special skills to being a refugee. And as long as the family stayed together, that was all that really mattered. (Penguin Group)
Only the Birds Are Free By Anna Christake Cornwell 380 pages Born in the United States to Greek parents, Anna Christake Cornwell was trapped in Greece during the Nazi-fascist occupation in World War II. Her mother and father had returned to Greece to educate their young son, Tasio, and their daughter, Anna, in the mother tongue and to visit the homeland. But, in 1940, in spite of the growing danger of world war, her father opted to return to the United States. Alone. Mother often rued his selfish decision. She was left to protect her two young children from the Nazis for the next five and one-half years. The horrors of war brought Anna, Mama and Tasio to know hunger and the constant threat of starvation, disease, exposure to the elements and enemy bullets. Constantly on the alert to raids, the refugees often ran to the mountains to hide, abandoning what little of their belongings remained. Anna was fired-up by the countrywide struggle for freedom. She became active in the youth liberation movement. Later, emerging into womanhood and self-realization, she became a freedom fighter, a leader risking her life for her ideals of independence and freedom.
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