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Historical Fiction: World War II
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.]
Pre-War
Holocaust and Minorities
Home Front
Aftermath
Soldiers/Battles/Leaders/Resistance Movements/Spies
Lower Grades (K-3)
- The Bicycle Man-Say (3.8/0.5)
- The Butterfly-Polacco (3.8/0.5)
- Shoes for Amelie-Steiner (3.1/0.5)
- Tail-End Charlie-Manning (3.8/0.5) (more suitable for 2nd or 3rd grade)
- The Tuskegee Airmen Story-Homan (4.2/0.5)
- The Unbreakable Code-Hunter (4.2/0.5)
- War Dogs: Churchill& Rufus-Selbert (5.3/0.5)
- Wind Flyers-Johnson (2.9/0.5)
- The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark-Deedy (3.7/0.5)
Middle Grades (4-8)
- Aloha Means Come Back: The Story of a World War II Girl-Hoobler (4.1/1)
- The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips-Morpurgo (4.8/4)
- Battle of Britain-Priestley (4.6/4)
- Behind Enemy Lines-Matas (5.5/6)
- Beyond the River-Elmer (4.7/8)
- Black Radishes-Meyer (5.2/8)
- A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor-Mazer (3.8/3)*
- The Boys from St. Petri-Reuter (5.0/7)
- Bungee Hero-Bertagna (4.2/1)
- Burying the Sun-Whelan (5.6/5)
- The Champion-Gee (3.9/7)
- Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society–Mah (5.4/8) (Japanese occupation of China)
- Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two-Bruchac (6.4/9)*
- A Coming Evil-Vande Velde (5.2/7)
- D-Day-Perrett (7.1/6)
- D-Day-Piotrowski (2.9/0.5) (graphic novel)
- David and the Mighty Eighth: A British Boy and a Texas Airman in World War II-Parker (5.1/4)
- Dawson’s Down!-Patterson (5.8/2)
- Dawn of Fear-Cooper (6.0/6)
- Depth Charge-Sherman (5.3/1)
- Desert Danger:Tim Jackson, North Africa WWII-Eldridge (5.9/5)
- Dieppe: Canada’s Darkest Day of World War II-Brewster (7/2) Nonfiction
- Doing Our Part: American Women on the Home Front During WWII-Sinnott (7.8/1) Nonfiction
- The Dolphin Crossing-Paton Walsh (5.2/6)
- Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows-Denenberg (5.6/3)*
- An Elephant in the Garden-Morpurgo (5.2/5)
- Elephant Run-Smith (5.0/10)
- Ellen’s Secret/Keeping Secrets-Booker (5.0/5)
- Faces of Courage: Young Heroes of World War II-Rogow (5.5/7)
- Fighter Escort-Patterson (6.5/2)
- Finding Zasha-Barrow (4.8/13)
- Fire in the Hills-Napoli (4.2/6)
- Four Steps to Death-Wilson (6.1/7)
- Hero on a Bicycle-Hughes (6.0/6)
- Heroes Don’t Run: A Novel of the Pacific War-Mazer (4/3)
- Hiroshima-Yep (4.9/1)
- Hitler’s Canary-Toksvig (5.4/6)
- The Hooligans-Townsend (4.9/4)
- The House of Sixty Fathers-De Jong (5.5/6)*
- I Survived: The Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941-Tarshis (4.3/2)
- Into the Flames-Elmer (4.8/9)
- It Began with a Parachute-Rang (4.0/3)
- Jeanmarie and the FBI-Travis (5.1/6)
- Jimmy’s Stars-Rodman (4.1/7)
- My Name is America: The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier/We Were Heroes-Myers (5.0/4)*
- The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II-Borden (4.5/0.5)
- Lisa’s War-Matas (3.8/3)
- London Calling-Bloor (4.0/10)
- Man Overboard!-Parkinson (5.0/4)
- Mercury’s Flight: The Story of a Lipizzaner Stallion-Wedekind (6.7/4)
- Michael at the Invasion of France, 1943-Calkhoven (4.5/6)
- Mission Sabotage-Stuart (3.8/2)
- Night Mission-Patterson (6.3/2)
- Number the Stars-Lowry (4.5/4)*
- On Rough Seas-Hull (4.7/10)
- Over to You-Dahl (5.5/8)
- Pearl Harbor-Boyd (3.3/0.5)
- Prisoner of Dieppe: World War II-Brewster (6.3/7)
- Prisoners of War-London (4.9/5)
- Remember D-Day: The Plan, the Invasion, Survivor Stories-Drez (7.9/2) Nonfiction
- Resistance-Jungman (4.0/1)
- The Righteous Smuggler-Spring (3.9/4)
- River of Freedom-Baxter (3.6/2)
- Scramble!-Patterson (6.5/1)
- The Secret Room-Townson (5.2/1)
- The Secret Room-Mercati (3.8/2)
- The Secret Shelter–LeFaucheur (4.3/7)
- The Secret War: A Second World War Girl’s Diary 1939-1940 –Atkins (4.7/4)
- Secrets in the Sky-Rice (4.8/4) (WASP’s)
- Shrapnel-Swindells (4.4/4)
- Sirens and Spies-Lisle (4.4/6)
- Soldier Bear-Dumon (5.2/5)
- Soldier Boys-Huges (5.4/7)
- A Spy on the Home Front: A Molly Mystery-Hart (4.2/3)
- Spy Smuggler: Paul Lelaud, France, 1942-1944-Eldridge (5.4/5)
- Ted & Me: A Baseball Card Adventure-Gutman (4.3/6)
- A Time for War-Sherman (5.2/1)
- To Touch the Stars: A Story of World War II-Zeinert (6.7/5)
- A Traitor Among Us-Van Steenwyk (4.3/4)
- Trapped in Time-Pedersen (5.1/3)
- A Trip Through Time-Mercati (4.0/2)
- U-Boat Hunter: Peter Rogers, HMS Arum 1939-1945-Perrett (7.1/5)
- War Dog-Booth (5.7/5)
- War Games: A Novel Based on a True Story-Couloumbis (4.6/7)
- Warriors in the Crossfire-Flood (3.8/4)
- Wartime Princess-Wilding (4.6/5)
- When My Name Was Keoko-Park (4.6/8) (occupation of Korea)
- When the War Is Over-Attema (4.1/10)
- The Winged Watchman-van Stockum (5.1/7)
- Year of Impossible Goodbyes-Choi (5.6/7)* (occupation in Korea)
Middle Grades+ (6+)
- The Auslander-Dowswell (5.5/11)
- Between Shades of Gray-Sepetys (3.6/9)
- Blitzed-Swindells (4.7/5)
- The Boy Who Dared-Bartoletti (4.9/5)
- Dark Hours-Pausewang (4.5/8)
- Defiance-Jablonski (2.6/1)
- Domenic’s War: A Story of the Battle of Monte Cassino-Parkinson (5.2/6)
- Eagle Day-Muchamore (6.8/14)
- The Escape-Muchamore (6.6/10)
- Eyes of the Emperor-Salisbury (3.9/6)
- The FitzOsbornes at War-Cooper (6.7/22)
- Flygirl-Smith (4.3/11)
- Grey Wolves-Muchamore (6.5/14)
- The Prisoner-Muchamore (7.1/12)
- Resistance: Book 1-Jablonski (2.6/1)
- Secret Army-Muchamore (6.2/11)
- Shadow on the Mountain: A Novel Inspired by the True Adventures of a Wartime Spy-Preus (5.0/8)
- Shanghai Shadows-Ruby (5.3/10)
- The Sniper-Riordan (5.4/7)
- The Winter War-Durbin (5.0/7)
Upper Grades (9-12)
- The Animals-Rice (3.8/1)
- B for Buster-Lawrence (4.7/11)
- Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery-Benn (5.4/17)
- Blitzcat-Westall (5.9/9)
- Brothers in Valor: A Story of Resistance-Tunnell (4.3/6)
- The Caine Mutiny-Wouk (6.4/34) (also a movie)
- Catch 22-Heller (7.1/30) (also a movie)
- Code Name Verity-Wein (6.5/15)
- Crash Dive-Frederick (3.4/1)
- Eva’s Cousin-Knauss/Bell (6.2/18)
- Farthing-Walton (6.0/15)
- The First Wave: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery-Benn (5.5/16)
- For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy-Bradley (4.0/5)
- Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission-Sides (9.1/21)
- Hart’s War-Katzenbach (6.9/32) (also a movie)
- His Watchful Eye-Cavanaugh (5.1/17)
- I Had Seen Castles-Rylant (5.7/3)
- In War Times-Goonan (5.8/22)
- The Last Mission-Mazer (4.3/6)
- A Legion of Honor-Horton (6.3/15)
- The Madonnas of Leningrad-Dean (6.4/10)
- Postcards from No Man’s Land-Chambers (5.4/16)
- Room in the Heart-Levitin (4.4/10)
- Saints and Villains-Giardina (6.0/31)
- Sarah’s Key-Rosnay (4.3/12) (Also a movie)
- Silent Star-Peterson (4.9/4)
- Soldier X-Wulffson (5.7/7)
- Stones in Water-Napoli (4.2/7)*
- Street Boys-Carcaterra (6.2/18)
- Taffy of Torpedo Junction-Wechter (4.7/4)
- Theo-Harrison (6.7/5)
- Tiger, Lion, Hawk-Rice (4.0/1)
- A Town Like Alice-Shute (5.8/19)
- Traitor-Pausewang (5.1/8)
- Under a War-Torn Sky-Elliot (4.8/10)
- The Winds of War-Wouk (6.6/61)
- Wings of Honor-Willard (5.7/13)
- Yossel: April 19, 1943: A Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising-Kubert (4.0/2)
- Zoli’s Legacy Book II: Bequest–Watkins (4.0/5)
Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress Flickr stream
2 Comments
Abigail D. Dotson
“The greatest value of historical fiction is that it allows the reader to experience the past.” (Rothlein, 41) Readers of historical fiction can learn about events that changed the course of history; they can gain an understanding of their heritage and begin to sense the flow of history. They can see how people have worked together in the past and they learn how present and future are linked to actions in the past.
admin
Couldn’t agree more, Abigail. And it’s a lot more entertaining than textbooks.