Book List: World War II YA Reads

I'm not afraid to admit that there are a lot of things I've read in history textbooks that I've already forgotten. And just like millions and millions of people out there, I find myself Googling historical facts more often than not whenever I'm in need of some. 

Historical young adult novels, on the other hand, are different. Unlike the thick (and boring) textbooks I study in school, the historical YA books I've read are nothing near forgettable, because they are the books that really touched me and changed the way I saw yesterday's youth, especially during times of struggle and depression.

I particularly love reading about the Second World War with young people as the protagonists or narrators, because these characters - fictional or not - make everything more relatable and hard-hitting. There have been so many times I've asked myself "What could I have done if I were in their place?" Knowing that kids my age or younger have gone through such horrifying ordeals is indeed eye-opening.

In this post, I'd like to share with you nine of my favourite World War II YA reads. I wish they change the way you see and value life as much as they changed my views. If you've already read some (or all) of them, you probably already know what I mean.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

SYNOPSIS: 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 Annexe" 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.

Feels factor: 4 - The Diary of a Young Girl is a classic that everyone has to read. I personally look up to Anne Frank a lot. She's like a ray of sunlight in the bleak, bleak sky.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

SYNOPSIS: A graphic narrative describes what happens to a 13-year-old Jewish girl when the Nazis invade Hungary in 1944. Includes a brief chronology of the Holocaust.

Feels Factor: 5 - If you want a really graphic account of what happened in labour and concentration camps during the Second World War, this is your book. From the food they're forced to eat, to the bunks (or floors) they sleep in, this is the most detailed WWII narrative I've read. It's actually my favourite, and I couldn't thank my friend, Felis, enough for lending a copy of this book to me back in high school. 

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John  Boyne

SYNOPSIS: 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 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.

Feels Factor: 4.5 - Karma comes around. That's all I could say about this heart-breaking novel of two deemed unlikely BFFs.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

SYNOPSIS: Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic--the star of her school's running team. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon gravely ill with leukemia, the "atom bomb disease," Sadako faces her future with spirit and bravery. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again. Based on a true story, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranescelebrates the extraordinary courage that made one young woman a heroine in Japan.

Feels Factor: 4 - Whenever I teach someone to fold a paper crane, I always tell them the story of Sadako. It's something that I'll never get tired of telling.

Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

SYNOPSIS: Twelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to.

That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor. Other Americans start to suspect that all Japanese people are spies for the emperor, even if, like Sumiko, they were born in the United States! As suspicions grow, Sumiko and her family find themselves being shipped to an internment camp in one of the hottest deserts in the United States. The vivid color of her previous life is gone forever, and now dust storms regularly choke the sky and seep into every crack of the military barrack that is her new "home."

Feels Factor: 3 - "Weedflower" is pretty laid-back compared to the other books in this list, but it has the most unique theme, because it deals with the discrimination of immigrants in the time of war.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

SYNOPSIS: As the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, the Johansens take in Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is part of the family. Ellen and Annemarie must think quickly when three Nazi officers arrive late one night and question why Ellen is not blond, like her sisters.

Through Annemarie's eyes, we see the Danish Resistance as they manage to smuggle almost the entire Jewish population, nearly 7000 people, across the sea to Sweden. In this tale of an entire nation's heroism, Lois Lowry reminds us that there is pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.

Feels Factor: 3.5 - "Number the Stars" was an unexpectedly suspenseful read for a children's novel. I've never read anything about the Danish Resistance before I got a copy of this book, and I gotta say their feat of smuggling almost the entire Jewish population from Denmark to Sweden is simply unbelievable and brave.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

SYNOPSIS: He's a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham.

He's a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He's a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He's a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels. He's a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he's a boy who realizes it's safest of all to be nobody.

Feels Factor: 3 - "Milkweed" started pretty slow, but as I followed Gypsy's struggle to find his true place in society, it made me realise that, sometimes, a sense of belonging is all you need.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

SYNOPSIS: It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who 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.

Feels Factor: 4.5 - "The Book Thief" has got to be one of the most unique WWII novels I've read. It's narrated by death and shows a different side of Germans - that not all of them were cruel to the Jews, and that they were victims of war, too.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

SYNOPSIS: Fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas is arrested by the Soviet secret police and deported to Siberia with her mother and younger brother. Lina fights for her life, vowing that if she survives she will honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her complete story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Lina’s writings chronicle her experience, her struggle to accept help from a kind Soviet guard she’s supposed to hate, and retain her dignity without losing faith in mankind.

Feels Factor: 5 - One word to describe this book: Krasivaya.

♥Andz