WWII BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS

RECOMMENDED READING

You can find all of these titles available for purchase on Bookshop.org


Home-Front Stories

“Dear America: The Fences Between Us” by Kirby Larson
“The Art of Keeping Cool” by Janet Taylor Lisle
“On the Wings of Heroes” by Richard Peck
“Don’t You Know There’s a War On?” by Avi
“Summer of the War” by Gloria Whelan
“Doing My Part” by Teresa R. Funke
“V for Victory” by Teresa R. Funke
“Wave Me Good-bye” by Teresa R. Funke
“Dancing in Combat Boots: and Other Stories of American Women in World War II (teen)” by Teresa R. Funke


Pearl Harbor Stories

“Under the Blood-Red Sun” by Graham Salisbury
“A Boy No More” by Harry Mazer
“War on a Sunday Morning” by Teresa R. Funke


Japanese Camp Internment Stories

“Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
“Weedflower” by Cynthia Kadohata
“Journey to Topaz” by Yoshiko Uchida
“Thin Wood Walls” by David Patneaude
“The Fences Between Us” (Dear America Series) by Kirby Larson
“The No-No Boys” by Teresa R. Funke


Japanese-American Stories Not in Camp

“Eyes of the Emperor” by Graham Salisbury
“My Friend the Enemy” by J. B. Cheaney


The War in the Pacific and Asia

“Year of Impossible Goodbyes” by Sook Ngui Choi
“When My Name Was Keoko” by Linda Sue Park
“Elephant Run” by Roland Smith
“Remember Wake” (teen) by Teresa R. Funke


The War in Europe

“I Am David” by Anne Holm
“The Book Thief” (teen) by Markus Zusak
“The Great Escape” (teen) by Paul Brickhill
“Code Name Verity” (teen) by Elizabeth Wein
“Rose Under Fire” (teen) by Elizabeth Wein
“The Boy Who Dared” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
“Between Shades of Gray” by Ruta Sepetys


The Holocaust

“Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry
“Milkweed” by Jerry Spinelli
“Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank
“The Hiding Place” (teen) by Corrie ten Boom
“Maus: A Survivors Tale” Parts I & II (graphic novel for teens) by Art Spiegelman


Nonfiction/True Stories

“Ten True Tales (Teens At War)” by Allan Zuller
“True Stories of The Second World War” by Paul Dowswell
“Pearl Harbor Child: A Child’s View of Pearl Harbor from Attack to Peace” by Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson