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.  

Refugee: The Graphic Novel by Alan Gratz, art by Syd Fini

 

This graphic novel re-telling of Alan Gratz's very successful novel, Refugee, is bringing the stories of Isabel, Josef, and Mahmoud to a new cohort of young readers. Each character is fleeing from their home country due to war and political violence, and each has an action-packed historical story. Refugee has been beloved by students and teachers since its publication in 2027 and this graphic novel perfectly captures the story. This is a must-purchase book for elementary and middle schools and will serve as an excellent springboard to discussions about immigration, human rights, and courage. 

The Lions' Run by Sara Pennypacker

 

Lucas lives in an orphanage in a French village. The Nazis have invaded, making life hard for everyone. Lucas is soft-hearted, making him a target of bullies. The story begins with him rescuing newborn kittens and hiding them in a stable where he meets a girl who is rescuing a racehorse. In addition, Lucas makes a little money making deliveries, and on his route is a German-run home for pregnant teenagers. He discovers that the Germans are taking these babies, fathered by German soldiers, back to Germany to be raised to be the next generation of Nazis. These storylines intersect and Lucas finds ways to be courageous that involve much more than saving kittens. It sounds complicated and like more than a 4th-6th grader might want to handle, but Sara Pennypacker makes this story accessible, compelling, and inspiring for young readers. As a middle school librarian I was hoping that it would lean toward older readers, but it is solidly in the young middle grade sphere and I'm sure it will find many readers who will learn a lot from this story, both about history and about how ordinary young people can be heroes. 

Under the London Sky by Anna Woltz

 

Imagine your city being bombed for months and spending every night huddled in a crowded subway station, sleeping among strangers and not knowing if your home would be gone when you emerged in the morning. That was the reality for Londoners during the World War II Blitz and this is the story of Ella, a 14 years old girl, and three other teenagers living through the Blitz. Ella has a limp caused by polio and often feels left behind and ignored, but her new friend Quinn does not seem to notice Ella's physical limitations. Quinn is a wealthy girl, recently escaped from her family's fine estate, and eager to help with the war effort and find her brother, Sebastian, who may or may not be a traitor. The girls meet a 26-year-old boy named Jack who makes money off of the hardships of others and the stories of these four young people intertwine in wartime London. There is hardship and romance and tragedy and reconciliation in this historical book that's perfect for young teens. Recommended for 7th and 8th graders and for all middle school library collections.   

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. 

Westfallen by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares

 

Imagine if your actions today could change absolutely everything about the society you live in. Henry, Frances, and Lukas are three modern kids who find an old radio that allows them to communicate with kids 80 years in the past. They realize they are in the same shed in the very same back yard, and that there are ways they can send items back and forth. The kids in the past want to save their local candy store, but they also want to know the outcome of World War II, which is still very much uncertain. Even the most careful conversation can lead to dramatic changes in the future, and when the outcome of the war changes, Henry, Frances, and Lukas have just a few days to reverse the changes and restore the United States of America. This book keeps you guessing up to the end, teaches lots of history lessons, and makes you want to immediately pick up the sequel. Highly recommended for 5th-7th grades. 

The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming

Most kids probably don't know how important secret codes were during World War II. Germans, Japanese, and Allied forces had to send radio messages around the world, and it was vitally important to each side that their messages were not intercepted, and thus each country went to great lengths to disguise their messages and to decode the communications coming from their enemies. This gem of a nonfiction book explains how British citizens spent years of their lives working to break the codes that Germans created using the Enigma machine. The Enigma was a kind of typewriter, but with lots of wheels and almost unlimited combinations of letters that changed daily. The British military took over a large house in the countryside near London called Bletchley Park and they recruited the most brilliant mathematicians and code breakers they could find. They also assigned thousands of young women, many of them still teenagers, to Bletchley Park to help in the work of code breaking. As you will see from this book, those girls did repetitive, very specific jobs day in and day out, never knowing exactly what contributions their work was making to the larger effort of saving lives, stopping the Nazis, and ending the war. 

Candace Fleming has taken this huge topic involving thousands of people, and focused in on 10 teenage girls who left their homes and families to help break the Enigma's codes. The result is this brilliant book, full of flesh and blood young girls away from home, doing important work, while at the same time growing up during wartime. These amazing women went on to live ordinary lives, unable to talk about the work they did for many years (they signed wartime secrecy papers and they all kept their silence). When their stories got out, the world was shocked to discover the brilliant work they did and the lives they saved thanks to their incredible sacrifices. As is frequently the case with Candace Fleming's work, there is much here for teenagers as well as adults. I highly recommend this award-winning book for readers ages 13-up with an interest in World War II, math, secret codes, and women's history. 

Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge

 

I missed reading this book when it first came out in 2022 but I am here to say this should be required reading for Americans of all ages. An excellent children't nonfiction book is a treasure for kids and adults, and this is an absolutely astounding take on the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II through the lens (literally) of three photographers who documented the atrocity from different angles. Dorthea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Toyo Mitatake were all taking photos for different reasons and many of their photos remained hidden for many years. The combination of the illustrations and the photographs make for an engaging read and brilliantly show the things that could and could not be photographed. Because this book is the shape of a picture book, middle school students may not pick it up, but it is absolutely perfect for visual learners and gives them exactly the right amount of information they need to understand what happened and empathize with the American citizens whose constitutional rights were stripped from them during a time of war. Educators should read this book and work it into history, ELA, and even art classes. Don't miss this treasure!

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepytus and Steve Sheinkin

 

Historical fiction and mystery are expertly combined in this fast-paced book set in the summer of 1940. It begins with Lizzie on a ship bound for her grandmother's home in America to avoid the war. Lizzie escapes from her guardian just before the ship sails, proving herself to be no ordinary 14-year-old girl. She stays in England with her older brother Jakob who is covertly working as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park where Alan Turing and other real historical figures are frantically cracking Nazi codes. While Jakob works on the Enigma machine codes (fascinating!) Lizzie is solving the mystery of her mother's disappearance in Poland just as the Nazis invaded. Lizzie provokes government agents, works as a messenger at Bletchley Park, and evades her grandmother's attempts to retrieve her yet again, all the while solving mysterious codes in messages seemingly being sent by her missing mother. It's great fun and there is much to be learned about the potential Nazi invasion of Britain during World War II. Pair this with Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming and Spying on Spies by Marissa Moss and Radar and the Raft by Jeff Lantos for readers of any age (adults included) who want to know more about this time period. Septetys and Sheinkin are top-notch writers for young teens and pairing them up is a big treat for readers. 

Pearl by Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie

 

This captivating graphic novel follows a 13-year-old girl from Hawaii to Hiroshima and back again. The year is 1941 and Amy's parents, who are Japanese American, send Amy on a ship to Japan to meet her dying grandmother. Amy's grandma, whom she calls Sosobo, was a pearl diver in her younger years and Amy grows close to her in the months she lives in Japan on her family's farm. But it is 1941, and when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, the world is at war and Amy can't go back home to Hawaii. Amy soon discovers that America is imprisoning Japanese Americans, including Amy's family. And when the Japanese army finds an American in their midst, they take teenage Amy to spy on American radio broadcasts. So much happens to this young girl, and middle schoolers will be engrossed in Amy's story and they will learn quite a bit about world history, including the atomic bomb that is destined to fall on Hiroshima. This is a quick read with a lot to think about, and one that should be in all middle school libraries. 

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

 

In this time travel graphic novel a modern teenage girl finds herself transported (or “displaced”) back in time to a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans. Kiki knows that her grandmother spent time in a camp, but knows very little about her experiences. After a few brief displacements, Kiki becomes stuck in the past, which gives her the  opportunity to observe her relatives and maybe even get to know them. She fully lives the life of one of the captive Japanese citizens, but longs to return to her mother in the present day. It can be hard to get kids interested in nonfiction books about this time period, and this story is an excellent gateway to learning about hard history and gaining some empathy for the Japanese people who were so callously displaced. I wished that she had actually gotten to know her grandmother better in the past, but that wasn’t the direction the story took. The art is perfectly suited to the story and will draw readers in. Highly recommended for grades 7-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. 

Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

This award-winning nonfiction book covers the frantic efforts to build the atom bomb as well as the spying and treason that occurred as Soviet spies tried to get the bomb for themselves. This is history I never learned in school, and I was absolutely engrossed in multiple aspects of the story. Of course, we learn about Robert Oppenheimer and how he and other American scientists were recruited and send to Los Alamos, New Mexico. But we also learn about Norwegian resistance fighters trained in Britain to sabotage a facility in Norway that Germany had taken over.  The Norwegian fighters parachuted into frozen Norway, used cross country skis to travel hundreds of miles, snuck down into a gorge and back up the other side to break in and sabotage a "hard water" production facility that ultimately kept Germans from developing the bomb first.  We also hear how various Russian sympathizers ultimately became spies and turned over exact instructions on how to build an atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Sheinkin does not shy away from the moral issues related to the bomb. Readers sense the desperation to keep the bomb out of German hands. But we also feel the horror of what was created and how it continues to have the potential to destroy the earth and humanity. I recommend this book wholeheartedly to adults and anyone who is a history buff. I suspect that it will be appreciated by smart teenagers with a strong interest in history, but it may be too much for the average kid as it's a complicated story. Nevertheless, it's an outstanding work of nonfiction by a masterful writer. 
 

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Graphic Novel)

 

This new graphic novel brings a heartbreaking, gutwrenching novel to a new audience. Lina, a Lithuanian teenager, is abruptly taken by Soviet soldiers from her home along with her mother and brother. The year is 1941 and Stalin's troops are systematically moving people to villages in Siberia where they are forced to do hard labor and given minimal shelter and food. This chronicle of Lina's family's struggles is fictional, but based on real stories from survivors of these atrocities. Lina is an artist and finds ways to use her art to send messages to her father who she believes is imprisoned by the Russians. The captives react in a range of ways--some are generous, some are cruel, some give up, some collude with the enemy. I was deeply affected by the original novel, and this new graphic novel reminded me of how important this story is. Both are highly recommended for grades 7-up. This is definitely a young adult book that adults can and should read. 

Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive by Laura Hillenbrand

This World War II survival story was on my list to read for a long time. I never did make it through the original adult version, but this young adult adaptation was just what I needed. Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner, became an Air Force bombardier in World War II. His long, harrowing survival story began with being shot down over the Pacific Ocean. He and some companions survived the plane crash, only to be on a raft with no water and aggressive sharks attacking. After surviving this unbelievable struggle, he is captured by Japanese soldiers and endures still more suffering. Zamperini is an incredible person who withstood unbelievable difficulties. His sense of humor, resilience, and attitude save his life and make this an unforgettable read. Recommended for middle schoolers who enjoy action, survival, and learning about World War II. 

War Stories by Gordon Korman

 

This is a contemporary story about a kid who loves playing World War II video games and learning about the war from his great grandfather, G.G. Trevor idolizes G.G. and is thrilled to be invited on a trip to relive his war experiences in France. G.G. helped liberate a French village, and as the last living soldier from his company, is set to receive a medal there. Trevor travels from Fort Benning to Normandy to Paris and through rural France, but strange things are happening and an angry blonde teenage girl seems to be following them. This story goes from the present to the past, painting a vivid picture of D-Day, fighting through hedgerows, and the French Resistance. Readers will learn a lot, get drawn into the suspenseful story, and come to understand that right and wrong are hard to judge in a war-time setting. Middle school fans of Gordon Korman and anyone with an interest in World War II will want to read this book.  

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.

Allies by Alan Gratz

Allies is an action-packed, multi-faceted look at a day in history that many young people know little about. Readers see D-Day from multiple perspectives, including Samira, an Algerian girl whose mother is part of the French resistance; Dee, an American soldier on a Higgins boat; James, a paratrooper; and Henry, an African American medic trying to save lives on the beach. The book realistically includes blood and death and the terror of the war, and there is not a happy ending for all of the characters. Alan Gratz has many fans, and Allies will not disappoint. Highly recommended for middle schoolers who want to read about war and who like books full of action and heroism.

Grenade by Alan Gratz

Alan Gratz visited my school and told the students the inspiration for this book. Gratz learned that in 1945, middle school students in Okinawa were conscripted into the Japanese army and given two granades. One was to kill the American "monsters" that were coming, and the other was to kill themselves. This grabbed my attention as well as the students, and this book did not disappoint. The story follows two soldiers--Ray, an American who is unused to killing, and Hideki, a 13-year-old from Okinawa who has his two grenades. In alternating chapters we learn about their families, their fears, and what they face in the brutal battle for the island of Okinawa. It is heartbreaking for the reader, as well as Hideki, to realize that the Japanese never intended to stop the Americans. Rather, they used Okinawan children to slow their advance. Alan Gratz books are wildly popular, and this one fits right in with his other action-packed books with war as a backdrop. Read a great story and learn about history with this well-written historical fiction story.

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.