World War Two is a popular theme for both fiction novels and non-fiction books. Below is a list compiled from teacher recommendations about books their students enjoyed. Some of these books might be appropriate for middle school students, but you would need to preview the content first. This blog post contains affiliate links which are of no cost to the reader. If you make a purchase through the provided links this blog will receive a small commission to help with the financial costs of maintaining the site.
The author tells his father’s story of survival during the Holocaust.
An autobiographical story about how a teenager survived in the Nazi death camps. Read the Common Sense Media review here.
The author tells her story of growing up as a teenager in Auschwitz.
Hillary is a member of a neo-Nazi gang and hates Jewish people. One day she is injured in an accident and in her mind she becomes a Jewish girl fighting to survive in a concentration camp.
Unbroken
Louis Zamperini is a track star until World War II began and he became a bombardier assigned to the Pacific Theater. His plane crashes and after 47 days at sea he is rescued by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp. Read the Common Sense Media review here.
A story about a girl who smuggled goods during 1943 in Amsterdam. She is asked to find a missing Jewish fifteen-year-old girl which is punishable by death. Read the Common Sense Media review here.
A story about a blind French girl and a German boy as they both try to survive World War II.
A story about a fifteen-year-old girl (Lina) and her family that are forced into a Siberian work camp. Lina documents the events by creating drawings. Read the Common Sense Media review here.
Two boys on the opposite sides of the war are eager to be heroes until they are see the true horrors of war.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
A story about a nine-year-old boy whose father works at Auschwitz and doesn’t understand what is happening around him. He leaves the house to go exploring and meets an unexpected friend on the other side of the fence. Read the Common Sense Media review here.
Liesel Meminger lives outside of Munich in 1939 during Nazi Germany. She steals books and shares them with her neighbours and the Jewish man hiding in the basement. Read the Common Sense Media review here.
More Book Reviews
