War and Conflict

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) 

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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) 

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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) 

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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) 

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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)

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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) 

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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) 

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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)

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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)  

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​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) 

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Sandip Wilson is a professor in the School of Education and Department of English of Husson University, Bangor, Maine.