📖 The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Louise Borden. ​ This picture book celebrates the brave civilians who risked their lives to sail across the English Channel and rescue thousands of allied soldiers stranded at Dunkirk. – Elementary • Middle

📖 D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy by Rick Atkinson. ​This adaptation of Atkinson's adult bestseller, The Guns at Last Light, is the book for middle schoolers who love military history and are eager to read about the D-Day Invasion in great detail. – Middle

📖 The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won by Stephen E. Ambrose. ​Written for an upper middle school audience, The Good Fight is a no-nonsense chronicle of key events in the second World War. Note that the book is battle-heavy and very focused on the role of the United States in the War; other countries get short shrift. The many photographs and maps enhance the text. –Middle • High

📖 Woeful Second World War and Blitzed Brits by Terry Deary. Turn to the Horrible Histories books to learn “history with the nasty bits left in.” Woeful Second World War provides a general overview of the war, while Blitzed Brits focuses on life in wartime Britain. – Elementary • Middle

▶️ Horrible Histories TV show. Episodes of the popular “Horrible Histories” sketch show are available to stream on Amazon Prime, Hulu, and YouTube. Search our Horrible Histories Sketch List to find every “Woeful Second World War” sketch from Seasons 1–5. – Elementary • Middle 

🔗 Content Connection: Holocaust. Read historical and fictionalized accounts of the Holocaust.

📖 Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Bartoletti. ​This photograph-rich, 140-page Newbery Honor book tells the heartbreaking story of the Hitler Youth."By the time Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, 3.5 million children belonged to the Hitler Youth. It would become the largest youth group in history. Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores how Hitler gained the loyalty, trust, and passion of so many of Germany's young people. Her research includes telling interviews with surviving Hitler Youth members." – Middle • High

📖 We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement that Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman. The German people were hardly united in their support of the Hitler regime. In this award-winning account, Freedman introduces the White Rose Student Movement that resisted Hitler’s brutality. This text-heavy book features a lot of archival photos and back material—a good option for an older student with an interest in the topic. – Middle • High

📖 The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix. This graphic novel account of the life of German Resistance member Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a terrific addition to a study of Nazi Germany and Hitler’s rise to power. Highly recommended. – Middle • High

📖 Pearl Harbor by Stephen Krensky. ​Here is your Easy Reader introduction to Pearl Harbor. Krensky places the incident in historical and political context, explaining the sequence of events that led to the attack. – Elementary

📖 Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World by Douglas Wood. ​​ This book describes Winston Churchill's pivotal visit to the Roosevelt White House in late 1941. Wood provides an entertaining and informative glimpse of the genuine friendship between these two great world leaders with big personalities.​ – ​Elementary

📖 Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II by Penny Colman. As American men went off to fight in the War, an unprecedented number of women joined the workforce. Colman’s short chapter book documents this phenomenon with photos and personal accounts. Rosie the Riveter has received many honors and is a great choice for upper elementary and middle school students. ­– Elementary • Middle

📖 Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki.​ This somber but accessible story reveals the prejudice and injustice that Asian Americans faced during and after World War II. Sent to live in a Japanese internment camp during the War, the residents cope with the boredom by forming a baseball league. – Elementary

📖 So Far from the Sea by Eve Bunting. ​ This nested tale shifts between the 1970s and 1940s. Laura and her family visit her grandfather's grave at the Manzanar War Relocation Camp, where her father's family was forced to live during World War II. Flashbacks, with illustrations rendered in black and white, provide a glimpse of the family's desolate life within the camp.​ – Elementary • Middle

🔗 Content Connection: US History – Great Depression. Learn more about President Franklin D. Roosevelelt.

📖 Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. In Sheinkin's Bomb, we get an inside look at the colorful characters and intrigue surrounding the development of the atomic bomb during World War II. It's an in-depth treatment of a complex and fascinating subject, and will be best appreciated by older students. Bomb is a Newbery Honor book. – Middle • High

📖 The Secret Project by Jonah Winter. This picture book tells of America’s covert efforts to develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. The folk-art style illustrations are gentle and the text is simple; little scientific or historic detail is provided. The Author’s Note gives more information. – Elementary

📖 Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on her home city of Hiroshima. Ten years later, she developed leukemia as a result of the radiation. This poignant chapter book is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki. Be warned - there is no happy ending. – Middle

📖 Hiroshima by Laurence Yep. Here’s a fictionalized account of the bombing of Hiroshima and the aftermath: “Based on real accounts by Hiroshima survivors, the fictional story of twelve-year-old Sachi follows her witness to the devastation in her city as a result of the bombing and describes her healing process as she helps to rebuild her home.” – Middle

📖 The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren. Here is a very nice picture book about the Danish resistance, based on a true story. With the aid of their neighbors, Anett and her family help a Jewish family flee Nazi-controlled Denmark. Images of frightening Nazi soldiers are effectively juxtaposed with descriptions of the brave and generous Danes. – Elementary

📖 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. During World War II, the Danish resistance smuggled nearly its entire Jewish population into Sweden to keep them from being sent to Nazi concentration camps. This fictionalized account is told through the eyes of 10-year old Annemarie, who, with her family, helps her best friend secure safe transport to Sweden. Number the Stars was awarded the 1990 Newbery Medal. – Middle

📖 The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. This beloved Newbery Honor Book is a coming-of-age story set in Great Britain during World War II. “Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie.” Also see the sequel: The War I Finally Won. – Elementary • Middle

📖 Genevieve’s War by Patricia Reilly Giff.  Here is a novel set in German-occupied France during World War II: “Despite the farm-work and her irritable grandmother Memé, Genevieve thinks she may have found a new home in Alsace, France, where she spent the summer of 1939.  Without much to return to in New York, Gen is ready to see if this new life will make her happy. But then World War II erupts. The Nazis conquer France. Now everyone in Alsace must speak German, act German, and think German—or else. Even worse, a cold Nazi officer has commandeered a room in Memé's farmhouse—and he can tell that Gen and her grandmother aren't loyal to the Reich.” – Elementary • Middle

📖 Grenade by Alan Gratz. This fast-paced novel is set against the background of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspective of Hideki, a 12-year-old Okinawan, and Ray, a young American marine. – Middle

📖 The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin. This gentle novel is set in Germany-occupied Holland: "Take care of the little riders," says Johanna's father to the eleven-year-old when he leaves her with his parents for an extended vacation in their Dutch village. And Johanna does. She loves the twelve metal figures on horseback who ride forth each hour from the clock on the ancient church tower. She would do anything to protect them. And on night she risks her life to prove it. – Elementary • Middle

📖 Behind the Bedroom Wall by Laura E. Williams. Here is the rare World War II novel set in Nazi Germany: “Thirteen-year-old Korinna Rehme is a member of her local Nazi youth group and is convinced that Hitler is helping Germany. But when she discovers that her parents are hiding a Jewish family behind her bedroom wall, she must decide what she really believes.” – Elementary • Middle

📖 Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. This classic novel, set in German-occupied Norway, is said to be based on a true story: “In the bleak winter of 1940, Nazi troops parachuted into Peter Lundstrom's tiny Norwegian village and held it captive. Nobody thought the Nazis could be defeated—until Uncle Victor told Peter how the children could fool the enemy. It was a dangerous plan. They had to slip past Nazi guards with nine million dollars in gold hidden on their sleds. It meant risking their country's treasure—and their lives.” – Elementary • Middle