Sandip Wilson
The books in this column feature perspectives on historical events that provide context and detail for readers that can deepen their understanding of the influences of war and conflict on the lives, hopes, and dreams of children, families, friends, communities, and people worldwide.  

Code Name Kingfisher. Liz Kessler. (2024). Aladdin.
In 1942, the parents of Jewish 12-year-old Mila and 15-year-old Hannie send them from their home in Amersfoort, Holland, to live under false identities with a family in another Nazi-occupied city. In present day England, 13-year-old Liv’s 93-year-old grandmother, Bubbe, who is silent about her life during World War II, moves into an assisted living community. These two stories are woven together in chapters that alternate from present day to 1942-1945. The voice of Liv is heard as she discovers clues to Bubbe’s long-kept secrets of her childhood in an old chest in her grandmother’s attic while working on a family history project. The uncertainties of life in the Netherlands under German occupation are presented from the point of view of Mila (and occasionally that of her friend Willem) and through Hannie’s epistolary journal entries to her mother about her work in the Dutch resistance under the code name Kingfisher that involves dangerous assignments to rescue Jewish children by taking them to safe places. The novel’s suspenseful twists highlight the terror Mila and Hannie face as they discover they can trust no one.  Lisa Kessler adds a contextual “Code Name Kingfisher Historical Note.” (Gr 6 Up) 

Do You Know Them?: Families Lost and Found After the Civil War. Shana Keller. Illus. by Laura Freeman. (2024). Atheneum.
Perspectives on how formerly enslaved people reconstructed their families have been neglected in the narrative of the U.S. Civil War Reconstruction era. “After the war ended, everyone was missing someone.” Lettie, too, was missing her family that had been sold long before enslavement was abolished. She was saving the pennies she earned working to place an ad in the Richmond Planet seeking information about her family. As Lettie learned to read with her Uncle Charlie, she pored over the “lost” ads placed in the newspaper and picked out words to use in her own ad one day. Hoping people who could not read would hear a familiar name, she also read the newspaper advertisements in church meetings. Finally, after years of saving, Lettie had enough money, fifty cents, to place an ad. Laura Freeman’s stunning double spreads, rendered digitally in rich colors, convey the hope people held of seeing loved ones again and the joy they felt for one another upon hearing news of reunions. An author’s note provides a context for this historical picture book. Lettie is a fictional character; the ads pictured actually appeared in post-Civil War newspapers. (PreK Up) 

The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets and Helped Win World War II. Candace Fleming. (2024). Scholastic.
In 1940, as the Nazis advanced across Europe and bombed London nightly, workers at Bletchley Park (code name Station X) intercepted German radio transmissions and cracked codes and ciphers including the more complex ones produced by the Nazis on the enigma machine. They transcribed, translated, and indexed the messages. Working in around-the-clock shifts, this secret work consumed the lives of some young women over the next five years. Candace Fleming’s engaging text, complemented by captioned archival photographs, tells the stories of ten overworked, stressed, isolated, lonely but determined and dedicated teenagers with different skills whose work at Bletchley Park provided critical information to the British government and military about German war plans and movements. “TOP SECRET” sections inserted throughout the book explain the technology and science of code breaking and deciphering. The stories of the young women who made up more than half of the ever-swelling work force at the Park remained secret for 30 years after the war’s end. Back matter includes an author’s note, a bibliography of primary and secondary sources (books, magazine and newspaper articles, other documents and videos), source notes, and an index. (Gr 6 Up) 

The Girl Who Fought Back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Joshua M. Greene. (2024). Scholastic Focus.
With short chapters and numerous two-to-three page insets with information and captioned archival photographs that provide historical context, Joshua M. Greene provides middle grade readers with an informative account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from the perspective of Vladka Meed (1921-2012). In 1940, the Nazis force her Jewish family out of their home and into to the brick-walled ghetto. She has an approved job outside the ghetto but witnesses the Nazi brutality and deportation of residents to death camps that accelerates daily. In 1942, after her family disappears from the ghetto in one of the roundups, Vladka realizes that dying at the hands of the Nazis is only a matter of time and decides to join the underground. As the resistance movement gains strength in 1943, she is tasked with smuggling women and children out of the ghetto and weapons into the ghetto for the uprising that began on April 19. Greene ends the book with an account of Vladka and her husband’s post-World War II activities and their dedication to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. Back matter includes a glossary, acknowledgments, and photo credits. (Gr 6-8) 

Guts for Glory: The Story of Civil War Soldier Rosetta Wakeman. Joanna Lapati. (2024). Eerdmans.
The oldest of nine children, Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (1843-1864) “wanted something . . . different. She wanted something more” than the life available to a woman on a farm in New York. She cut her hair, put on her father’s old clothes, and set out in 1862 to volunteer for the newly formed 153rd New York Regiment in the Union Army as Lyons Wakeman. Joanna Lapati’s stunning scratchboard illustrations for this picture book biography include sepia-toned excerpts from Wakeman’s letters home recounting the regiment’s service guarding Washington D. C. and campaigns in Louisiana. In a letter dated April 14, 1864, after a two-day march in retreat, Lyons wrote “. . . I feel thankful to God that he spared my life . . . I pray to him that he will lead me safe through the field of battle and that I may return safe home . . .”  Back matter includes an author’s note, more about Wakeman and the Civil War, a timeline, further excerpts from her letters (1862-1864), and a glossary explaining the items in a Civil War soldier’s pack pictured on the endpapers. (Gr 3 Up)

Heroes. Alan Gratz. (2024). Scholastic.
Living on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor in 1941, 13-year-old Frank McCoy (a white child whose father is a Navy pilot) and Stanley Summers (the child of a Japanese American mother and white father who is a flight crew chief at the air station) are collaborating on a superhero comic book. Frank’s failure to stand up to bullies because of his fear of being hurt, however, prompts Stanley to ask, “How can you write about heroes, if you can’t be one.” When Japanese Zeros attack the harbor on December 7, they are caught in the middle of the bombing and strafing. Frank and Stanley manage to swim from the sinking ship they were touring, the USS Utah, but upon reaching the safety of their neighborhood bunker, they realize that Stanley is now the enemy. Alan Gratz’s detailing of the moment-to-moment terror the two boys face and their actions provides a perspective on how war and racism force children to make decisions in this riveting novel of friendship, transformation, and courage. Back matter includes a map of Pearl Harbor showing the location of ships, oil tanks, and air fields and an author’s note that separates fact from fiction and provides contextual information on World War II in the Pacific. (Gr 6-8) 

Lion of the Sky. Ritu Hemnani. (2024). Balzer & Bray.
 Twelve-year-old Raj, a Hindu, who shares a passion for kite flying with his best friend Iqbal, a Muslim, is looking forward to winning an upcoming kite flying competition. He is equally excited about the approach of Indian independence that will free the country of British exploitation. When families learn of the terms of the 1947 partition creating Pakistan and a separate India, however, celebration turns to animosity, terror, and bloodshed. Raj’s family must flee their home in Sindh, in what is now southeast Pakistan, and travel east into what has become India. Hardship follows them as they seek refuge in Bombay where they are considered outsiders. Raj faces bullying in school and his father and brother, Vijay, try to find work as tailors. Ritu Hemnani shows how Raj faces the challenges of displacement by using his love of spices to help his mother sell her fabulous, aromatic food to support the family. This novel in verse, one of ingenuity, devotion, and perseverance, offers perspectives on the effects of political decisions and conflicts on children and their families. Back matter includes an author’s note, glossary, and acknowledgments. (Gr 3 Up) 

Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II (Operation Kinderspion #1). Adam Gidwitz. (2024). Dutton.
As part of the Kindertransport rescue of children, Jewish 11-year-old Max leaves Berlin on a train to Holland followed by a boat ride to England in 1939. He surprisingly finds he is traveling with two mischievous and snarky immortal spirits only he can see and hear on his shoulder: Stein, a Jewish dybbuk, and Berg, a German kobold. Max vows to return to Berlin to reunite with his parents. He is living with the wealthy Jewish Montagu family, but suffers the antisemitism of bullying teachers and students at the elite St. West’s School. Deciding that becoming a spy for the British is the only way to get back to Berlin, he shows ingenuity and resourcefulness in coming up with a plan to do so. Alan Gratz’s novel, with its fantastical and humorous characters and details about English intelligence, shows perspectives on children’s resilience, courage, determination, and use of their unique talents to overcome challenges. Back matter includes a section separating fact from fiction in the novel, an annotated bibliography, and acknowledgments. The ending will leave middle graders eagerly anticipating the release of the second book in this duology, Max in the Land of Lies. (Gr 3 Up)

The Night War. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. (2024). Dial.
In 1942, 12-year-old Miriam (Miri) escapes a Nazi roundup of Jewish people in Paris with Nora, the baby that neighbor Mrs. Rosenbaum handed her. A nun hides them, gets her false papers under the name Marie, and arranges her escape in the dead of night to a convent school in Chenonceaux, a border village near still unoccupied Vichy France, but Nora is secreted to a Catholic family while Marie is sleeping. As Marie is still adapting to a puzzling new life in the school, Sister Dominque takes her to Château de Chenonceau, a castle under Nazi guard, supposedly to help with the gardens but, in reality, for the purpose of having Marie help Jews escape to freedom through the castle. Marie befriends a woman in black only she can see and hear who lives in the castle and learns that she is the ghost of imperious Catherine de’ Medici, who may be able to help her find Nora and escape to freedom. In this layered novel of complex characters and events, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley illustrates decisions children have to make living in uncertainty and terror as Marie adapts to an unfamiliar culture while hiding her identity and finding unexpected allies. An extensive author’s note addresses which parts of the story are true. (Gr 3 Up)  

​Uprising. Jennifer A. Neilsen. (2024). Scholastic.
In 1943, 12-year-old Lidia whose Catholic family lives next to the ghetto in Warsaw where Jewish families must live, longs to take part in resisting the grip of destruction and terror Nazi occupiers have had since the invasion in1939. Her father serves in the Polish Army defending Poland against the encroaching Russians, and her brother, Ryszard, secretly works in the resistance. Emboldened by the uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943, Lidia joins the resistance. With her deep knowledge of the streets of Warsaw, resourcefulness, and courage, she becomes indispensable when the Warsaw City Uprising breaks out August 1,1944. Jennifer A. Neilsen’s account of the daily activities waged above ground and the use of the sewer system as an effective means of escape until the end of the Uprising, October 2, 1944, details the intelligence and indomitable strength of the resistance fighters in this middle grade novel of friendship, courage, and determination based on the true story of Polish Resistance fighter Lidia Janina Durr Zakrewski (1924-2011). Back matter includes archival photographs of Lidia and her family and an author’s note. (Gr 3 Up) 

​Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus
This column features books that introduce readers to stories about people, places, and events from the distant past to recent times, including some stories that young people will not encounter in their textbooks. The books are notable for presenting history from interesting points of view and perspectives in engaging formats and for encouraging contemplation and conversation about how the past is shaping the history that is being made now and will be made in the future.  

​America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History. Ariel Aberg-Riger. (2023). Balzer + Bray.
America Redux offers readers a brilliant and completely entrancing new way of seeing American history through visual storytelling. In 21 nonlinear chapters (each introduced with a catchy title and quotation) filled with mixed-media collages created with archival photographs, maps, graphic images, and excerpts from documents and a lively text presented in handwritten typeface, Ariel Aberg-Riger immerses readers in an exploration of thematic stories that have shaped our sense of the history of America for centuries, including what is not in our textbooks. For example, the first chapter, “In the Good Old Days,” covers how The United Daughters of the Confederacy (formed in 1894) became an “army of influence” that got textbooks banned and teachers fired, affecting the way generations of children learned about American history into the 1970s, and also notes the struggle to control the historical narrative that continues today. America Redux ends on a thought-provoking note: “We can’t change the past. But we can live in relationship with it in a way that informs and energizes our present.” Back matter includes acknowledgments, image sources, a selected bibliography, and an index. (Gr 9-12)
—CA

​Ancestory: The Mystery and Majesty of Ancient Cave Art. Hannah Salyer. (2023). Clarion.
Hannah Salyer introduces young readers to cave art, “the ancient rock paintings, drawings, and etchings” that are time capsules telling the stories of our ancient past. With a spare informative text and stunning double-spread artwork (including a dramatic double gatefold) created using ceramic sculpture, photography, colored pencil, charcoal, pigment, and digital media, she tells the story of how our ancient ancestors produced works of art using pigments made from minerals and handmade tools to draw and etch on stone. Today, archaeologists continue to study the details of the stories being told in ancient cave art found all over the world and are working with Indigenous people from communities with connections to these ancient sites that “hold pieces of our history on the planet.” Back matter includes a world map of rock art sites that have been rediscovered, “A Story Within a Story” about the wall paintings in the Lascaux Caves rediscovered in the south of France in 1940, an author’s note, a glossary, a time line, and resources for further reading and investigation. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA

Last Flight. Kristen Mai Giang. Illus. by Dow Phumiruk. (2023). Levine Querido.
This informational picture book, presented from the viewpoint of an eight-year-old girl, is based on author Kristen Mai Giang’s constructed memories from family interviews and other sources of leaving on the last commercial flight out of Saigon, a rescue mission carrying more than 400 people on April 24, 1975, just six days before Saigon surrendered to the North Vietnamese Army. When her family disembarks in the United States, the girl stands atop the steps looking down at the tarmac, frozen in place until she draws courage from remembering how she and her mom navigated busy Saigon streets. Sharing Ma and Ba’s wisdom with her younger sister, she says, “Don’t be afraid. Just walk. Don’t stop,” and they enter their new world. Dow Phumiruk’s mixed-media illustrations capture the emotions and actions of the people portrayed as they make their flight from the war-torn country to begin a new life. Back matter includes a photograph of Giang’s family taken shortly after they arrived in the U. S., an author’s note, flight facts, and a bibliography. (PreK Up)
—NB 

A Long Time Coming: A Lyrical Biography of Race in America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama. Ray Anthony Shepard. Illus. by R. Gregory Christie. (2023). Calkins Creek.
In this collective biography of race in America, organized in three parts: 1773-1913 Enslavement and Emancipation, 1862-1968 Freedom and Justice, and 1961-2008 The Promise of America, Ray Anthony Shepard’s story-poems focus on significant events in the lives of six Black Americans who heroically faced the challenges of their times to fight for freedom and justice: Ona Judge, Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama. In the epilogue, Shepard’s poem “The Long Time,” in which each stanza ends with “It was a long time coming,” celebrates the legacy of each of these Black leaders with verses—dated from 1796 for Ona Judge to 2009 for Barack Obama—and two additional stanzas, Today and Tomorrow. The extensive back matter of this informative and accessible biography-in-verse, which is complemented by R. Gregory Christie’s black-and-white artwork done in gouache and India ink, includes a timeline, further reading, a bibliography, source notes, and an index. (Gr 6 Up)
—CA

Pictured Worlds: Masterpieces of Children’s Book Art by 101 Essential Illustrators from Around the World. Leonard S. Marcus. (2023). Abrams.
In this beautifully designed volume celebrating the history of the illustrated picture book, Leonard S. Marcus features 101 illustrators from around the world who have made significant contributions to the art of children’s book creation. Each four-page entry includes a photograph, biography, and career overview of the artist and a profile of one of their books with an “about the book” note, photographs of illustrations from the book, and its publication history. About one-third of the books were originally published in the U. S. Marcus’s presentation of the illustrators in alphabetical order—from Akaba Suekichi (born 1910, Tokyo, Japan; died 1990, Tokyo, Japan) to Lisbeth Zwerger (born 1954, Vienna, Austria)—effectively keeps the focus on artistic innovations in children’s books. Back matter includes acknowledgments, a chronology of the featured books, source notes, and image credits. Pictured World is a 431 page treasure-trove of a reference about children’s book art. Readers will find themselves revisiting favorites from their own childhood experiences with books and also discover illustrators whose books they want to explore. (Adult)
—CA ​

​The Plot to Kill a Queen. Deborah Hopkinson. (2023). Scholastic.
In Deborah Hopkinson’s spy story set in 1582 presented as a play in three acts, 13-year-old lutest Emilia Bassano sneaks out in boy’s clothing to see a production because she is writing a play of her own for a contest. On the way to the theater, Emelia is robbed of her coins right before she overhears part of a conversation by two men: “kill the imposter” and “smuggled letters in and out of Sheffield.” Running into 18-year-old Will Shakespeare, who also traveled to the play to study writing craft, she agrees to his sneaking her into the attic to view the play. After Emilia reports what she has heard to her guardian, Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, he dispatches her to Sheffield Castle on a secret mission as a court musician to locate the spies of Mary, Queen of Scots, who is imprisoned there, and foil the plot to kill her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, to regain the throne. A cast, in order of appearance, is listed in the front of the book and asides to readers about theatrical productions (playbill, prologue, curtain call) and insets of an historical nature (photographs, maps, and diagrams) are interspersed throughout the story. The back matter includes historical notes, a timeline of actual events, Emilia’s one-act play “The Princess Saves the Cakes” (with production permission), acknowledgments, illustration credits, and an “about the author” note. (Gr 6-8)
—NB

Small Shoes, Great Strides: How Three Brave Girls Opened Doors to School Equality. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Illus. by Alex Bostic. (2023). Carolrhoda.
On November 10, 1960, six-year-olds Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne stepped into history when, escorted by U. S. Marshals past a mob of protestors, they walked into McDonogh No. 19 Public School in New Orleans. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson tells this little-known story of the Civil Rights Movement from the points of view of the three first-graders who were the first black children to enter a previously all-white public school in Louisiana. (Ten minutes later, Ruby Bridges entered William Frantz Elementary School across town.) Alec Bostic’s exquisite artwork features expressive portraits of the courageous girls who “opened doors to school equality.” Back matter includes “After McDonogh 19: ‘House of Horror’—Thomas J. Semmes Elementary” about the racist mistreatment the girls faced after a transfer to this school for third grade; more about school desegregation in New Orleans; a photograph and information on Norman Rockwell’s 1964 painting The Problem We All Live With, published to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling; a “More About the McDonogh Three” section with photos; information on the U. S. Marshals Service; an author’s note; a glossary; websites; a selected bibliography; and a page of quotes and captioned photographs. (Gr 3 Up)
--CA

Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport. Caren Stelson. Illus. by Selina Alko. (2023). Carolrhoda.
Caren Stelson begins this true story in 1938 with young Jewish children living in Prague when, as Hitler’s antisemitic campaign is sweeping through Europe, their parents meet with a man to arrange for them to join the Czech Kindertransport. In March 1939, as German soldiers march into the city, their parents whisper a final goodbye, “Let the stars of the night and the sun of the day be the messenger of our thoughts and love,” and the children board a train to begin their long journey to safety in England. Returning to Prague at the end of the war, most of the Czech Kindertransport children discovered their parents had perished during the Holocaust. Fifty years pass before the survivors learn the name of the man who had arranged for the rescue of 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia: Nicholas Winton. Five children, identified by different colored clothing, are followed throughout the book in Selina Alko’s evocative mixed-media illustrations. Back matter features information about the Kindertransport Movement, a timeline, “Winton’s Children” (the five children highlighted in the book), “Stars in Another Night: the Yad Vashem’s Children’s Memorial” in Jerusalem, a note on the needs of refugee children in the world today, author’s and illustrator’s notes, source notes, a selected bibliography, and recommendations for further reading. (Gr 3 Up)
--NB

Windrush Child: The Tale of a Caribbean Child Who Faced a New Horizon. John Agard. Illus. by Sophie Bass. (2023). Candlewick.
John Agard’s lyrical poem tells the story of the journey of a young Caribbean boy and his parents as they leave their island family to move to England aboard the ship Empire Windrush. “Behind you / Windrush child / palm trees wave goodbye.” During the long journey, the boy worries about the future— “… doors closing and opening // will things turn out right?” Once in London, he shares his Windrush adventure in a letter to his grandmother, who had told him “you’re stepping into history / bringing your Caribbean eye / to another horizon.” The final stanza ends with the boy being welcomed by new friends “… in a mind-opening / meeting of snow and sun.” Sophie Bass’s evocative gouache-and-pen illustrations on single- and double-spread pages contain strong figures and vivid colors that reinforce the emotions of leaving one’s past life to embrace a new home. Back matter includes a note from the author about the Windrush Generation, who relocated from the Caribbean to Britain between 1948 and 1971, and short author and illustrator biographies. (PreK-Gr 2)
—NB