The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti - In October 1942, 17-year-old Helmuth Hubener, 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. (Middle School Readers)
We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust edited by Jacob Boas - Diary entries written by five Holocaust victims document the ordeals suffered in Nazi-occupied Lithuania, Hungary, Belgium and Holland. (High School Readers; Middle School Readers)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable by John Boyne - 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 wife fence. (High School Readers; Middle School Readers; also available as an e-book)
Once by Morris Gleitzman - After living in a Catholic orphanage for nearly four years, a naive Jewish boy runs away and embarks on a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents. (Middle School Readers)
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz - Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was 11, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau. (Middle School Readers; also available as an e-book)
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene - Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas. (Middle School Readers)
Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs - In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia, where she and her sister, Rachel, are forced to make blankets and uniforms for the German army. (Middle School Readers)
Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli - After being taken by German soldiers from a local movie theater along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friend, Roberto is forced to work in Germany. He escapes into the Ukrainian winter before desperately trying to make his way back home to Venice. (Middle School Readers)
Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus - In Nazi-occupied Norway, 14-year-old Espen joins the resistance movement, graduating from deliverer of illegal newspapers to courier and spy. (Middle School Readers)
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - In 1941, 15-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. (High School Readers; also available as an e-book)
Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow - In 1936 Berlin, 14-year-old Karl Stern, considered Jewish despite a non-religious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Scheming while struggling with the realities of the Holocaust. (High School Readers; Middle School Readers)
Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman - Spiegelman, the child of Holocaust survivors and a well-known cartoonist, addresses his family's plight in the frames of a comic strip in this dark and unusual work for more mature readers. (High School Readers)
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli - Set in Nazi-occupied Poland just before the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Spinelli's first historical novel tells a tale of heartbreak, hope and survival through the eyes of a young orphan. (Middle School Readers; also available as an e-book)
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen - Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland. (Middle School Readers; also available as an e-book)
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - 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. (High School Readers; also available as an e-book)
Check out other Suggested Reading lists here, including Teen Reads, High School books and Middle School books.
