A Call to Arms...Books About War
The Revolutionary and Civil Wars
Chains: Seeds of America by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA FIC And)
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Vol. 1
by M.T. Anderson (YA FIC And)
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. First in a series.
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier (YA FIC Col)
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.
Two Girls of Gettysburg by Lisa Klein (YA FIC Kle)
When the Civil War breaks out, two cousins, Lizzie and Rosanna, find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict until the war reunites them in the town of Gettysburg.
The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War by Carol Matas (YA FIC Mat)
In 1862, after Union forces expel Hannah's family from Holly Springs, Mississippi, because they are Jews, Hannah reexamines her views regarding slavery and the war.
Spy! by Anna Myers (YA FIC Mye)
In 1774, twelve-year-old Jonah becomes a pupil of Nathan Hale, who inspires him to question his beliefs about the impending revolution, and two years later, Jonah makes a decision that leads to Nathan's execution.
The Girl in Blue by Ann Rinaldi (YA Fic Rin)
To escape an abusive father and an arranged marriage, fourteen-year-old Sarah, dressed as a boy, leaves her Michigan home to enlist in the Union Army, and becomes a soldier on the battlefields of Virginia as well as a Union spy working in the house of Confederate sympathizer Rose O'Neal Greenhow in Washington, D.C.
Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells (YA Fic Wel)
As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn't know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known.
World Wars 1 & 2
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (YA FIC Bar)
In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.
A Call To Arms…Books About War cont.’
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable by John Boyne (YA FIC Boy)
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.
Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes (YA FIC Hug)
Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.
B is for Buster by Iain Lawrence (YA FIC Law)
In the spring of 1943, sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age to enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew flying bombing raids over Germany.
Heroes Don’t Run by Harry Mazer (YA FIC Maz)
To honor his father who died during the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, seventeen-year-old Adam eagerly enlists in the Marines in 1944, survives boot camp, and faces combat on the tiny island of Okinawa.
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (YA FIC Mor)
When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Mirjam Pressler (YA FIC Pre)
After a school trip to Israel, Johanna discover's that her German grandfather acquired a clothing store during the Nazi regime according to the anti-Semitic laws of the Third Reich rather than starting it himself as her family has always stated. She struggles with whether to keep silent or to question her family's history.
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy (YA FIC Roy)
From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation.
Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury (YA FIC Sal)
Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II.
The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick (YA FIC Sed)
Having always been able to know when someone is going to die, Alexandra poses as a nurse to go to France during World War I to locate her brother and to try to save him from the fate she has foreseen for him.
Flygirl by Sherri Smith (YA FIC Smi)
During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Soldier X by Don Wulffson (YA FIC Wul)
In 1943 sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on the Russian front.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (YA Fic Zus)
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Other Wars
Shattered: Stories of Children and War edited by Jennifer Armstrong (YA FIC Sha)
Stories explore the ways in which children are affected by war, from two Native American soldiers fighting in the Civil War, to an Afghan girl whose village is destroyed by the Soviets.
Winter War by William Durbin (YA FIC Dur)
When Russian troops invade Finland during the winter of 1939-40, Marko, a young polio victim determined to keep his homeland free, joins the Finnish Army as a messenger boy.
Freefall by Anna Levine (YA FIC Lev)
As war between Israel and Lebanon breaks out in 2006 and her compulsory service in the Israeli army draws near, teenaged Aggie considers joining an elite female combat unit.
Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick (YA FIC Mcc)
While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers (YA FIC Mye)
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers (YA FIC Mye)
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah (YA FIC Zep)
Fourteen-year-old Alem Kelo adjusts to life as a foster child seeking asylum in London, while his Eritrean mother and Ethiopian father work for peace between their homelands in Africa.
Non-fiction Accounts of War
Thura’s Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq
by Thura Al-Windawi (YA BIO Alwinawi autobio)
Nineteen-year-old Thura al-Windawi traces the days leading up to the bombings in Iraq, the war, and the chaos that followed, describing her life and the reality of war for Iraqi families.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy soldiers by Ishmael Beah (YA BIO Beah)
A human rights activist offers a firsthand account of war from the perspective of a former child soldier, detailing the violent civil war that wracked his native Sierra Leone and the government forces that transformed a gentle young boy into a killer as a member of the army.
Disguised : a wartime memoir by Rita la Fontaine de Clercq Zubli
(YA BIO Clercq Zubli)
Details the author's experiences in a Japanese POW camp where she, disguised as a boy and outraged at the conditions, injustice, and torture, dared to speak up for her fellow prisoners of war.
Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipovic (YA BIO Filipovic)
Zlata Filipovic' began her diary just months before her eleventh birthday in 1991. Peace still reigned in her hometown of Sarajevo, where she lived the carefree life of an innocent schoolgirl. But this life was suddenly shattered in 1992 when gunfire shook through the hills, and the streets of Sarajevo became the barbaric battlegrounds of the Bosnian war.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (YA BIO Frank)
The journal of a Jewish girl in her early teens describing 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.
Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide
by Nawuth Keat (YA BIO KEAT autobio)
A survivor of the horrors of war-torn Cambodia breaks his longtime silence to share his family's story of death, enslavement, and torture at the hands of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge fighters, providing an inspirational story of hope to children whose worlds have been devastated by catastrophe.
Basher Five-Two: The True Story of F-16 Fighter Pilot Captain Scott O’Grady
by Scott O’Grady (YA BIO O’Grady)
A U.S. Air Force pilot who was shot down over Bosnia describes the true story of how he evaded capture and survived-- with little water and no food--in enemy territory.
Ghosts of War: The true story of a 19-year-old GI
by Ryan Smithson (YA BIO SMITHSON autobio)
In a harrowing memoir about combat, friendship, fear, and a soldier's commitment to his country, Smithson brings teen readers inside a world that few understand, as he describes his experience as a 19-year-old Army engineer in Iraq.
When I Was a Soldier: A Memoir by Valérie Zenatti (YA BIO ZENATTI autobio)
Like all young Israelis, Valérie Zenatti enlisted in the national defense service on her 18th birthday, where for the next two years she endured rigorous training and harsh living conditions, ultimately participating in top-secret missions with the secret service.
To check the status of a book or to place your name on the waiting list, please use the Library Catalog or call the library at 789-1555.
This list created for the South Kingstown Public Library by Brandi Kenyon. Updated 10/09