I work in a middle school library, and we have a list of YA novels for the kids to pick from for the WWII unit. Here's the list. I know these are YA, and fiction, but they are all well written and offer an array of different perspectives.
Novel Study Selections These titles revolve around children and teens during the war years. The settings are primarily a home front whether in the U.S., England, France, Burma, or Italy. All of the main characters face loss, challenges and obstacles brought on by the war or complicated by it.
On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
A boy in Illinois remembers the home front years of World War II, especially his two heroes--his brother in the Air Force and his father, who fought in the previous war.
This book is also a selection of the ALA/NEH We The People Bookshelf.
Don’t You Know There’s a War On? by Avi
In wartime Brooklyn in 1943, eleven-year-old Howie Crispers mounts a campaign to save his favorite teacher from being fired.
For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Despite the horrors of World War II, a French teenager pursues her dream of becoming an opera singer, which takes her to places where she gains information about what the Nazis are doing--information that the French Resistance needs.
Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father--but no one will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos, New Mexico, she learns why: he's working on a top secret government program.
Don’t Talk to Me About the War by David A. Adler
In 1940, thirteen-year-old Tommy's routine of school, playing stickball in his Bronx, New York, neighborhood, talking with his friend Beth, and listening to Dodgers games on the radio changes as his mother's illness and his increasing awareness of the war in Europe transform his world.
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British father's plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya, they plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
I Had Seen Castles by Cynthia Rylant
Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight in World War II, a decision which forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life forever.
Blue by Joyce Hostetter
When teenager Ann Fay takes over as "man of the house" for her absent soldier father, she struggles to keep the family and herself together in the face of personal tragedy and the 1940s polio epidemic in North Carolina.
Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli
After being taken by German soldiers from a local movie theater along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friend, Roberto is forced to work in Germany, escapes into the Ukrainian winter, before desperately trying to make his way back home to Venice.
Weedflower by Cynthia Kodahata
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.
Thin Wood Walls by David Patnaude
When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor , Joe Hamada and his family face growing prejudice, eventually being torn away from their home and sent to a relocation camp in California, even as his older brother joins the United States Army to fight in the war.
War Dog by Martin Booth
After her owner is arrested while poaching, Jet is requisitioned by the British Army and sees duty on the beach at Dunkirk, searching for survivors of Germany's bombing raids on English cities, and in Italy at the end of the war.
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins
by Walter Dean Myers
A seventeen-year-old soldier from central Virginia records his experiences in a journal as his regiment takes part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent battles to liberate France.
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle
In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy.
The Last Mission by Harry Mazer
A bomber crew member at fifteen, Jack Raab has his dreams of heroism ended abruptly when his plane is shot down during a mission, forcing him to bail out behind enemy lines.
The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall
After an air raid, a group of English children find a German machine gun and hide it from the adults who are looking for it.
Slap Your Sides by M. E. Kerr
Life in their Pennsylvania hometown changes for Jubal Shoemaker and his family when his older brother Bud witnesses to his Quaker beliefs by becoming a conscientious objector during World War II.
A Boy At War, A Boy No More & Heroes Don’t Run by Harry Mazer This series follows Adam, a teenage son of a navy officer, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Japanese American relocation camps, to war in the Pacific as he deals with his feelings about war, his friendships and his relationship with his father.
B for Buster by Iain Lawrence
In the spring of 1943, sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age to enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew flying bombing raids over Germany.
Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.
Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
A battered, nine-year-old boy learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during the Second World War.
Homefront by Doris Gwaltney
In 1941 in rural Virginia, twelve-year-old Margaret Ann's fervent desire for a room of her own is thwarted by the arrival of her "perfect" English cousin who, having escaped the London blitz with her mother, is given the coveted room as well as all the care and attention of the rest of the family.
David and the Mighty Eighth
by Marjorie Hodgson Parker
When, during the London Blitz, he and his older sister are evacuated to go live on their grandparents' East Anglia farm, a young English boy finds it difficult to adjust to his new life until the arrival of the pilots and crews of the U.S. Eight Air Force at nearby airfields brings excitement, friendship, and hope for the future.
