Each and Every Spark by Claire Swinarski

 

This is a story in two time periods. Modern-day Penny has moved to Paris with her family for her mother's job, but she's deeply unhappy about the move. Marie Bonnet lives in Paris in 1943 and lives with her older sister after their father was taken away by Nazis. Marie discovers that her sister is doing resistance work and, desperate to make a difference, also begins working with the resistance at great danger to her own life. The two stories will intertwine when Penny finds a letter with a long-hidden painting and she sets out to find out more about Marie. Both girls are 13 years old and the vibe of this book is solidly middle grade. This book would definitely be appropriate for middle school libraries, but the sweet spot is going to be readers in grades 4-6. It would fit in well with books such as Number the Stars, The War that Saved My Life, and Codename Kingfisher.  

The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel (Author), Sammy Savos (Author), and Bethany Strout (Author)

 

Estelle Nadel was seven years old when Nazis invaded Poland and her life was upended. She spent the next years in hiding, facing devastating losses and relying on the mercy of neighbors and strangers. She miraculously survives the war along with two of her brothers. It's a miraculous story, made even better by the fact that it doesn't end with the defeat of Hitler. This book follows Estelle's journey through refugee camps and eventually to America, where three young people without parents struggle to make lives for themselves. Sammy Savos, the illustrator and co-author, masterfully illustrates and tells Estelle's story in a way that draws readers in, never hiding the sadness, fear and desperation of the Jews in hiding. The Girl Who Sang is a gem, and should be read by adults as well as young people 6th grade-up. 

Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler

 

This World War II story set in Holland features two sisters, Hannie and Mila. It is 1942 and the danger to Jewish people is rapidly increasing. The girls' parents find a non-Jewish family that will take the sisters, so the book begins with Mila and Hannie saying goodbye to their parents, possibly never to see them again. It's a dual timeline story, and in the modern day, a girl named Liv is trying to get to know her grandmother "Bubbe" better when she finds a box of papers in her attic. The story goes from past to present, and in the past we see the older sister Hannie get involved in the resistance by saving Jewish children from certain death. Mila is 12 years old, and the book has a solidly middle grade feel, but traumatic things happen and the brutality of the Nazis is evident. It's a compelling story that will appeal to historical fiction readers from 4th-7th grades. It has a lot of similarities to The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh, and readers who enjoyed Blackbird Girls and The War that Saved My Life will definitely want to read it. 

Linked by Gordon Korman

A middle school in Colorado is being defaced with swastikas and the students are faced with the question of who is vandalizing their school with symbols of hate. Three students narrate this story--Michael, the one who finds the first swastika and therefore is a suspect; Link, a popular boy who discovers a family secret about his own connection to the Holocaust; and Dana, the only Jewish girl in this small town. The students tire of the school's mandatory sensitivity training and decide to make a bold move--to create a paper chain with 6 million links representing all the lives lost during the Holocaust of World War II. A nosy blogger intervenes and their project becomes international news. But the question remains...who is continuing to paint swastikas at Chokecherry Middle School? Gordon Korman has a gift for writing books full of humor and suspense, and in this case he adds some deep questions about hate and social media and responsibility and how to attone for mistakes, even big ones. 

Resistance by Jennifer Nielsen

Chaya Lindner is a Jewish teen who joins the resistance during World War II. She is a courier and is adept at moving through the ghettos with food and weapons and sometimes even people. Like all Polish Jews, she has suffered devastating loss, but she channels her anger and pain into action. She is frustrated to be paired with Esther, another Jewish girl who makes mistakes and doesn't seem cut out to be a courier. However, once the their resistance cell is shattered, Chaya and Esther take on a mission to go to the Warsaw Ghetto where armed resistance is underway. The characters are nuanced and real, and the decisions they make are made in the context of their Jewish faith. This is not an easy book to read but it is a fine story of courage in the face of terrific evil. It also may serve as a first look at Polish ghettos and the Warsaw uprising for young readers. This is a natural follow-up for students who have read Alan Gratz's books (Allies, Grenade, Prisoner B-3087) and  The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by David Polonsky and Ari Folman

This graphic adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary is moving and surprising and beautiful. I was entranced by seeing Anne's familiar story brought to life to creatively. Anne and the other residents of the Secret Annex are vividly portrayed in images and in the words of Anne's famous diary. As I began to read this I was thinking that this would be the book that brings Anne's story to middle school children who may not be exposed to her full diary in school. I ended up thinking that this book needs to go to somewhat older students due to a couple of choices by the authors to highlight Anne's sexual awakening. Unfortunately, the two instances in this book, though true to her diary and her character, are going to scare away middle school teachers from using this book in schools. However, it is still a gorgeous, important book that should bring adults as well as young people to look anew at Anne's timeless and tragic story. 

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Refugee is a timely and moving book that will be perfect for middle school book clubs, language arts and social studies classes, and kids looking for an action-packed read. It traces the stories of three children living in different time periods who become refugees for a variety of reasons. Josef is a Jewish boy from Germany whose family is on a ship seeking refuge in Cuba; Mahmoud is a modern-day Syrian boy from Aleppo whose family must leave on foot when their home is bombed; and Isabel is a Cuban girl whose father is wanted by Fidel Castro's government in the early 1990s. The story alternates between each child and their increasingly harrowing journeys toward a better life, all of which involve travel over water at some point. Allan Gratz's books are already popular in my library, and this one is flying off the shelves. Recommended for grades 6-adult and definitely for teachers interested in human rights education.

Prisoner B-3087

Yanek Gruener was a Polish boy caught up in the nightmare of the Holocaust. He experienced some of the worst horrors of the concentration camps as a boy as he went from a ghetto to 10 concentration camps and was forced on two death marches. Author Alan Gratz took Yanek's true story and made it into this powerful novel based closely on fact. It would be hard to believe that he survived were it not a true story. Like most stories of the Holocaust, it is difficult to read, but what stands out is Yanek's unwavering will to stay alive. This book doesn't gloss over the horrors of the gas chambers and brutal random killings by Nazis. I would think it would be most appropriate for older middle schoolers, but I do know fifth and sixth graders who have read and loved this book. The Boy on the Wooden Box and Yellow Star are two other excellent Holocaust books that are good introductory books for younger middle schoolers.    

The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

Adults will remember the movie Schindler's List, but I'm guessing kids probably haven't heard of Oskar Schindler. Fortunately, this book brings Schindler to a new generation with the true story of the youngest Jew on Schindler's list. Leon Leyson was a young boy when Germany invaded Poland. His family was forced to live in a ghetto, then in a work camp. Leon's father had a job in a factory run by Oskar Schindler, and no one knew it at the time, but it was a factory that would save 1,100 people's lives. Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party and a German, but for some reason he made it his life's work to hire Jews in his factory and to keep them from being killed by the Nazis. There were many times in Leon's life when he escaped death by a sheer stroke of luck. He was starving and mistreated and worked almost to death. But when Schindler added him to his list of factory workers (along with Leon's father, mother, brother and sister), it was his only hope to survive World War II. As you can imagine, it's a great story of courage as well as heartbreak. This book is well-written and accessible and highly recommended for readers as young as fourth or fifth grade.

The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb

I love reading a good nonfiction book about a topic that is new to me. I vaguely knew that a lot of Nazi war criminals escaped to Argentina, but I had never heard the story of how Israeli spies tracked down the notorious Adolf Eichmann and brought him to trial in Israel. Eichmann was the head of the SS during World War II. It was his job to carry out Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. He was a powerful and arrogant man during the Holocaust, but he disappeared in 1945 when Germany lost the war. Years later, most of the world had given up and tracking down Nazi criminals, but many Holocaust survivors and people living in Israel still wanted to bring public justice to the worst perpetrators of the genocide. Amazingly enough, Eichmann was first discovered to be living in Argentina by a teenage girl and her blind father. It took several years for officials to believe their story and for Israeli spies to devise the elaborate plan to capture Eichmann, hold him as a secret captive in Argentina, and fly him to Israel—all without the Argentine government finding out anything. The details of how the capture was made are fascinating. This makes for great reading, especially for fans of history and spy books.

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

I love historical fiction and particularly enjoyed Elizabeth Wein's previous book, Code Name Verity. This follow-up book, which isn't a sequel but shares one character, was also a great read. Rose is a young American pilot working in Britain during World War II. She longs to fly to Europe instead of ferrying airplanes around the UK. On her first chance things go wrong and she is captured and sent to Ravensbrück, a women's concentration camp that I knew nothing about before reading this book. While there she is taken in by a group of women called the "rabbits" because they were the subjects of horrific medical experiments done by Nazi doctors. The whole concentration camp experience is awful, as you can imagine, but this book is so full of humor and humanity and daring that it is inspiring rather than depressing. I appreciated that the book did not end in the camps, rather it went on to show the aftermath for those who survived. This is a book about friendship and the power it can have to overcome the worst circumstances in the world. The best part of the book for me? Rose is also a poet who loves the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Millay's poems are interwoven throughout the text as are poems that Rose writes. Elizabeth Wein, a pilot herself, is an outstanding writer and this is a must-read for historical fiction lovers. My review isn't going this book justice, so please see this review of Rose Under Fire as well.

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke

I am in awe of Irene Gut, the author of this book. She lived in Poland during World War II and rather than giving in to Hitler and the German army she fought to save the lives of the Jews around her. She was only 17 when war broke out and she was separated from her family and traveling with the Polish army as a nurse. Russian soldiers attacked and raped her and she later was forced to work for the German army as a cook and a housekeeper. Her first act of resistance was to pass food into a ghetto. From there she slowly took more and more risks to save Jewish lives until finally she was transporting Jews to a hideout in the forest, hiding them in her workplace, and harboring them in the basement of the home where she was living and working as a housekeeper for a Nazi commander. She was always fearful for her life but never stopped doing what she thought was right. It was heartening to read about numerous others who also were helping in a time of unbelievable horrors. I would recommend this to 8th graders on up through adults.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale Volume 1: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman's father, Vladek, survived many horrors during the Holocaust, including being imprisoned at Auschwitz. Years later he was a crotchety older man living in New York when his son interviewed him about his life experiences. This graphic novel tells his story alternating between the sometimes difficult father-son relationship of the present and the gripping survival stories from the past. It starts out before the war when Vladek was a prosperous young man and the reader gets a sense of how gradually the repressive Nazi measures took effect. It's an amazing story for all ages and one that could really bring the Holocaust to life for mature teen readers. This book is only part one—to find out what happened in Auschwitz you must read Maus II.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

This book was supposedly written for young adults, but I would argue that it is really a book for people of all ages, especially for adults. It's definitely not aimed at middle school students even though the main character, Leisel Meminger, is of that age. It's an amazing, moving, wonderful book that gets more and more engrossing the more you read. Zusak chose to write about the Holocaust from the perspective of death, who isn't an evil character, he's just the one who is there to take people's souls away. Of course, death was very busy during World War II, but several times he noticed young Leisel Meminger, and he became fascinated with her story. Leisel, who is the book thief, is a German foster child in a poor family on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany. She has been given up by her mother and seen her brother die before her eyes. Her foster father, Hans Huberman, is goodness personified. Her foster mother, Rosa Huberman, is a stout, foul-mouthed, scowling woman with a great capacity to love. And her best friend Rudy Steiner is an indescribable companion whose goal in life is to be kissed by Leisel Meminger. Much tragedy befalls Leisel's family, but we get glimpses of their heroic kindness as they hide a Jew in their basement. Death is a cryptic, poetic, challenging narrator. I found myself reading and re-reading sentences to enjoy the images and the way the words were put together. Most of all I was moved by the humanity that death found on Himmel Street. It is a book that makes you cry at the evil in the world and also at the beauty that can live within the darkest circumstances. Recommended for mature teens and all adults.

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy

It seems like I hear about new Holocaust books every day, but I'm not always motivated to read them because it's such a painful topic. Last year I skimmed this book and realized how good it was and we made it an option for our sixth grade historical fiction unit. This summer I listened to it on CD and it is incredible. It is classified as a fiction book, but it is based entirely on the author's aunt's experiences in the Lodz Ghetto during World War II. Syvia was four when her family was forced into the ghetto and almost 10 when the entire family was liberated. All of her childhood memories are of that ghetto where they suffered from hunger, cruelty, and overwhelming fear of being sent to death camps. The Nazis removed all children from the ghetto (telling parents they were saving them when they were really killing them). Syvia's father dug a grave for them and they hid in the cemetery. After the children were gone Syvia had to be in hiding from everyone. The book is very easy to read. It's told in verse form that is almost like poetry, but more like the thoughts and experiences of a young girl. I was horrified once again by what Hitler did to innocent human beings, and I stand in admiration of Syvia's family and how they survived. Recommended for readers of all ages.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

I can't say too much about this book without giving away some of it's secrets. It is about an innocent 9-year-old German boy living during World War II. Bruno doesn't understand why his father's job has forced his family to move to "Out With" and he doesn't understand who all the people are that live behind the fence near his house. He does know that he would like to have some companionship, and he makes a good friend who happens to live on the other side of the fence. At times I thought Bruno was just too unbelievably innocent, but this book is supposed to be a fable, so you just have to suspend your disbelief and let the story take you to it's devastating conclusion. A very interesting read, especially for middle school readers with an interest in the Holocaust.