While at a book
fair with my publisher, Mirror
World Publishing, a man with his two tween daughters visited our table to peruse
our books. We showed the girls a couple of series directed toward their age
group, including my series The Last Timekeepers. When I mentioned that Book
Two took place during World War Two, the father perked up immediately. His
grandfather had fought in WW2, and I passed along that my grandfather fought in
WW1. He shared that he wanted his girls to learn as much as they could about
the World Wars, especially the sacrifices many soldiers made during those wars.
Dad ended up buying my book, which truly made my night, but prompted me to think: What
books have been written to teach our children about what the people went
through during those two world wars? So, I did a little digging and came up
with these six gems for tweens and teens which would make wonderful gifts for the
upcoming holiday season:
Charlie Wilcox, a
Newfoundlander, is interested in one thing only: going to sea, just like his
father and uncles. He'll make his family proud. His parents have different
plans for him, however: they want him to go to university. Humiliated, Charlie sets out to prove he can measure up to
the men in his family, and stows away on a sealing ship. It's only when they
are far out to sea, and he is discovered, that he realizes he's on a troopship
bound for France!
Alone
in Europe, he manages as best he can. He finds a regiment of fellow
Newfoundlanders, and because he's too young to fight he works as a stretcher
bearer instead. The trenches along the front lines of the Somme are no place
for anyone, but especially for a kid, and it's very hard not to be afraid.
Especially on the morning of July 1, 1916, when Charlie's friends are ordered
out of their trenches and over the top, and the German guns are waiting for
them...
In 1914, Joey, a
beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the
army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his
officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in
France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey's courage touches the
soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches
for Albert, the farmer's son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master
again?
In 1918, caring for her
family's homing pigeons while her father is away fighting in World War I,
twelve-year-old Pam comes to suspect that a mysterious stranger in her small
North Carolina town is a German spy.
Berlin, 1942: 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
to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to
do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the
strange people 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 from his own, and their meeting results in a
friendship that has devastating consequences.
Florence, Italy, 1944: The city is
under heavy Nazi occupation, but for thirteen-year-old Paolo, war is a long and
boring wait. Too young to fight for the resistance, yet desperate for action
and adventure, he sneaks out each night to ride his bicycle along the darkened
city streets. For Paolo, the risk is thrilling.
But when he is accosted by
Partisans―covert members of the anti-Nazi movement―thrilling quickly becomes
dangerous as Paolo and his family are thrust into a terrifying and impossible
situation. Finally at the center of the action, Paolo must figure out once and
for all whether he has what it takes to truly be a hero.
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the
last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world
classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to
the human spirit.
In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her
family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two
years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another
family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office
building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the
constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat
of discovery and death.
In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during
this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a
fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling
self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was
tragically cut short.
Those are only a smattering of what books are
out there on World War One and World War Two for tweens. Some of these books
I’ve heard of, others I haven’t. Some have even been made into movies. I don’t
think this generation will ever know what the veterans and victims of the two
world wars went through, but by creating an emotional response in a young
reader, it’s a step in the right direction to connect them with the brave men
and women who served and sacrificed during those terrible wars.
