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The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

From the Hardcover edition.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

John Boyne

This work was set in 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 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 what 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.
Number the Stars

Lois Lowry
Angel Girl

Laurie Friedman

Herman lives in a labor camp. It is World War II, and the Nazis have made him a prisoner. He is forced to work long hours, and his only food is soup made of water. Soon he loses the will to go on. Then she appears. A young girl on the other side of the barbed-wire fence - an angel girl, bearing food and hope in the most hopeless of times. She seems like a miracle. And for Herman, the miracles have just begun...Based on a ture tale of survival, Angel Girl is a story of love, hope, and the strength of the human spirit.
I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust

Livia Bitton-Jackson

The author, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz as a teenager, describes her terrible experiences as one of the camp's few adolescent inmates and the miraculous twists of fates that enabled her to survive.
The Devil's Arithmetic

Jane Yolen

Hannah is tired of hearing about the Nazis during the Holocaust, but when she opens the door for Elijah at the Passover Seder, she is transported in time to 1940s Poland, where she is captured and put in a death camp. A girl named Rivka befriends her, teaching her how to fight the dehumanization of the camp and hold onto her identity.
Snow Treasure

Marie McSwigan

Based on a true story, Snow Treasure is a tale of heroism set in Norway during World War II.This amazing book, continuously in print since 1942, tells how brave schoolchildren outwitted the invading Nazis.To keep their country’s gold out of Nazi hands, the children sledded thirteen tons of gold bricks down the mountain to a waiting ship. The appearance of innocent winter fun fooled the Nazis, and the gold was taken safely to America.

Beautiful illustrations perfectly capture the nostalgic tone and bring this thrilling adventure to life in an attractively priced gift edition.
Milkweed
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust

Eve Bunting

Little Rabbit learns the value of sticking together as the Terrible Things carry away the creatures of the forest clearing.
Letters from Rifka

Karen Hesse

"In letters to her cousin back 'home' in Russia, 12-year-old Rifka tells of her journey to America in 1919, from the dangerous escape over the border through Europe and across the sea to the new country."--Booklist.
Summer of My German Soldier

Bette Greene

When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, 12-year-old Patty Bergen learns what it means to open her heart. Although she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi--but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own, who understands and appreciates her in a way her parents never will. And Patty is willing to risk losing family, friends--even her freedom--for what has quickly become the most important part of her life. Thoughtful, moving, and hard-hitting, Summer of My German Soldier has become a modern classic.

"Courageous and compelling!" --Publishers Weekly

"An exceptionally fine novel." --The New York Times

* A Puffin Novel
* 208 pages
* Ages 10-14

* A 1973 National Book Award Finalist
* An ALA Notable Book
* A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
Boy Who Dared

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book, HITLER YOUTH, and fleshed it out into thought-provoking novel. When 16-year-old Helmuth Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he's tried for treason. Sentenced to death and waiting in a jail cell, Helmuth's story emerges in a series of flashbacks that show his growth from a naive child caught up in the patriotism of the times, to a sensitive and mature young man who thinks for himself.
Butterfly

Patricia Polacco
Daniel's Story

Carol Matas

Daniel, a composite character fashioned to reflect the experiences of millions of children during the Holocaust, describes his family's lives in pre-Nazi Frankfurt, their deportation to a ghetto, and their experiences in concentration camps. Reprint.
Yellow Star

Jennifer Roy
Escape from Warsaw (Original title: The Silver Sword)

Ian Serraillier

In 1942 Warsaw, World War II is raging, and people live in fear from day to day. Ruth, Bronia, and Edek have to fend for themselves when both of their parents are taken by the Nazis. Can they survive? A gripping story based on true accounts.
Soldier X

Don L. Wulffson

Sixteen-year-old Erik Brandt barely knows what Germany is fighting for when he is drafted into Hitler's army in 1944. Sent to the killing fields of the Eastern Front, he is surrounded by unimaginable sights, more horrific than he ever thought possible. It's kill or be killed, and it seems clear that Erik's days are numbered. Until, covered in blood and seriously injured, he conceives of another way to survive. Filled with gritty and visceral detail, Soldier X will change the way every reader thinks about the reality of war.
The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia

Esther Hautzig

Exiled to Siberia

In June 1942, the Rudomin family is arrested by the Russians. They are "capitalists -- enemies of the people." Forced from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland, they are herded into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia.
For five years, Ester and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields and working in the mines, struggling for enough food and clothing to stay alive. Only the strength of family sustains them and gives them hope for the future.
Rose Blanche

Roberto Innocenti, Christophe Gallaz

Rose Blanche was the name of a group of young German citizens who, at their peril, protested against the war. Like them, Rose observes all the changes going on around her which others choose to ignore. She watches as the streets of her small German town fill with soldiers. One day she sees a little boy escaping from the back of a truck, only to be captured by the mayor and shoved back into it. Rose follows the truck to a desolate place out of town, where she discovers many other children, staring hungrily from behind an electric barbed wire fence. She starts bringing the children food, instinctively sensing the need for secrecy, even with her mother. Until the tide of the war turns and soldiers in different uniforms stream in from the East, and Rose and the imprisoned children disappear for ever ...
Parallel Journeys

Eleanor H. Ayer

Presents the stories of Eleanor Ayer, a Jewish girl who hid in the Netherlands before she was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, and Alfons, a Nazi boy who became a commander at age sixteen, in a dual tale that demonstrates Hitler's impact on German youth.