Children and Young Adult Books on Related Themes
(Note: RC = Recorded Books; BR = Braille; DB = Digital Books)
Back to Guernsey Resources
Download promotional flier for use in your library or book club [.doc]
Nonfiction
Amis, Nancy. THE ORPHANS OF NORMANDY - Atheneum Books, 2003
A true story of World War II told through drawings by children. Relates how 10 young schoolgirls, many of them orphans, and their teachers managed to escape the chaos of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, by taking shelter in an iron mine for thirty-eight days and, after being forced out by the Germans, walking for twenty-nine days to reach safety behind Allied lines.
Drucker, Olga Levy. KINDERTRANSPORT - Holt Books, 1992
The author describes the circumstances in Germany after Hitler came to power that led to the evacuation of many Jewish children to England and her experiences as a young girl In England during World War II.
Ippisch, Hanneke. SKY - Simon & Schuster, 1996
A true story of resistance during World War II: illustrated with photographs, documents, and letters from the author’s collection.
Excerpts from Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl.ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF ANNIE FRANK - Houghton Mifflin, 1989
The journal of a Jewish girl in her early teens describes both the joys and torments of daily life, as well as typical adolescent thoughts throughout two years spent in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland.
Fiction
Bell, Tim.Nick of Time - St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008, YA.
Nick McGiver is no ordinary boy living in the Channel Islands, fighting pirates, beating Nazis at their own game, and traveling through time. 434 pgs.
Bishop, Claire Huchet.Twenty & Ten - Illus: Wm Pene DuBois; Viking, 1952,YA.
Twenty school children hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis during the occupation of France during World World II. Easy juvenile, 76 pgs.
Casanova, Mary.The Klipfish Code - Houghton Mifflin, 2007, YA.
Sent with her younger brother to Godoy Island to live with her aunt and grandfather after Germans bomb Norway in 1940, ten-year old Merit longs to join her parents in the Resistance and when her aunt, a teacher, is taken away two years later, she resents even more the Nazis’ presence and her grandfather’s refusal to oppose them. Nominee for Rhode Island Book Award. 227 pgs.
Levitin, Sonia.Room In The Heart - Dutton Books, 2003, YA.
After German forced occupy Denmark during WWII, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives,finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive. 290 pgs.
Lowery, Lois.Number the Stars - Houghton Miffllin, 1989. YA.
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. Newbery medal winner. 137 pgs.
Maguire, Gregory.The Good Liar - Clarion Books, 1999.
Now an old man living in the United States, Marcel recalls his childhood in German-occupied France, especially the summer he and his older brother befriended a young German soldier. 129 pgs.
Matas, Carol.Greater Than the Angels - Simon & Schuster, 1998. YA
Anna, a teenaged German refugee, relates how she and other Jewish children were cared for by the citizens of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France during German occupation. 192 pgs.
Napoli, Donna Jo.Fire in the Hills - Dutton, 2006. YA
Upon returning to Italy, fourteen-year-old Roberto struggles to survive, first on his own, then as a member of the resistance, fighting against the Nazi occupiers while yearning to reach home safely and for an end to the war. 215 pgs.
Oppenheim, Shulamith Levey.The Lily Cupboard - illus: Ronald Himler; Harper & Row, 1992. YA.
Miriam, a young Jewish girl, is forced to leave her parents and hide with strangers in the country during the German occupation of Holland. Easy Juvenile, unpaged.
Peet, Mal.Tamar - Candlewick Press, 2007. YA.
In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family. 424 pgs.
Polacco, Patricia.The Butterfly - Putnam, 2001.
During the Nazi occupation of France, Monique’s mother hides a Jewish family in her basement and tries to help them escape to freedom. Unpaged.
Rappaport, Doreen. The Secret Seder - illus: Emily McCully; Hyperion, 2005.
During the Nazi occupation of France, a boy and his father slip out of their village and into the mountains, where they join a group of fellow Jews at a humble seder table. Unpaged.
Sachs, Marilyn.Lost In America - Roaring Press, 2005. YA.
Follows the experiences of Nicole, a teenaged French Jew, from 1943-to 1948, as she loses her parents and sister to the concentration camps and then leaves her native France to make a new life for herself in New York City. 150 pgs.
Shemin, Margaretha.The Little Riders - illus: Peter Spier; Putnam, 1988.
An American girl living in Nazi-occupied Holland resents the presence of a German soldier quartered in her grandparent’s home until the night she tries to hide part of the town’s treasured clock mechanism. Easy Juvenile, 76 pgs.
Stuchner, Joan Betty.Honey Cake - illus: Cynthia Nugent; Random House, 2008.
David and his family live in Denmark during the Nazi occupation, until September 1943 when their neighbors help smuggle them to Sweden to escape Hitler’s orders to send the Danish Jews to concentration camps. Includes a recipe for honey cake, typically made to celebrate the Jewish New Year. 111 pgs.
Woodford, Peggy.Backwater War - Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1975.
Portrays the disruption in the life of a family when the Germans occupy the Channel Island of Guernsey during World War II. 213 pgs.
Resource Archive for past RARI selections