Reading Themes 

On Reading of War and Peace
A Bibliography

PICTURE BOOKS

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee
Lee & Low, 1993, 1-8800-0001-6
In an internment camp for Japanese Americans in WWII, the characters hang on to America’s favorite sport to preserve their dignity and their identity as Americans. Ages 4–8.

The Cello of Mr. O by Jane Cutler, illustrated by Greg Couch
Dutton, 1999, 0-5254-6119-1
In an unnamed city, an elderly neighbor plays his cello on the bomb-scarred street every afternoon in defiance of the war, inspiring the other citizens to hope that peace may return someday. Ages 4–8.

The Language of Doves by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Greg Shed
Dial, 1996, 0-8037-1471-8
A girl in Brooklyn, helping her grandfather with his pigeons, hears the story of a brave carrier pigeon whose flight while wounded saved the grandfather’s comrades in World War I. Ages 4–8.

The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Louise Borden
Illustrated by Michael Foreman
Margaret McElderry, 1997, 0-6898-0827-5
Fictionalized account of the famous flotilla that brought more than three hundred thousand soldiers across the English Channel. With an explanatory author’s note. Ages 4–8.

Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti, illustrated by Christophe Gallaz
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1991, 1-5567-0207-8
A glimpse of the Holocaust through the eyes of a small German girl who doesn’t understand what she’s seeing but reacts by instinct to pass food through the barbed wire of a concentration camp. Ages 4–8.

Sami and the Time of Troubles by Florence Parry Heide and Judith Heidi
Gilliland, illustrated by Ted Lewin
Houghton Mifflin, 1995, 0-3957-2085-0
Sami and his family must periodically hide in the basement of their house in Beirut; his grandfather tells him of the peace protest made years before by children, inspiring Sami to hope and work for peace. Ages 4–8.

The Wall by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ronald Himler
Houghton Mifflin, 1992, 0-3956-2977-2
A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, in search of the grandfather’s name: a quiet introduction to the war, as reflected by this monumental gravestone. Ages 4–8.

BOOKS FOR OLDER READERS

Adem’s Cross by Alice Mead
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996, 0-3743-0057-7
When Adem’s sister Fatmira is shot during a peace demonstration, his Kosovar-Albanian family is subject to even worse oppression by the Serbs. Ages 12 and up.

The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac
Dial, 1998, 0-8037-2078-5
The eve of a momentous battle of the American Revolution is told from alternating points of view: a young Quaker’s, and an Abenaki’s. Ages 9–12.

Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Scholastic, 1998, 0-590-89799-3
In the aftermath of WWII, the sixth grade girls of a small community in Oregon look forward to the traditional softball game that marks their passage from childhood into their teen years, little knowing that the hatred of the Japanese has not disappeared with the war. Ages 9–12.

Becoming Mary Mehan by Jennifer Armstrong
Laurel Leaf, 2002, 0-4402-2961-8
Two novels in one about Irish immigrants during the Civil War in Washington D.C., and about the aftereffects of the war. Ages 12 and up.

The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Tor, 1998, 0-8125-6562-2
A swashbuckling classic of England’s War of the Roses. Antiquated in its language, but still fun. Ages 9–12.

Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad by Rosemary Sutcliff
Illustrated by Alan Lee
Delacorte, 1993, 0-3853-1069-2
Sutcliff renders the poetry of Homer into robust and lyrical prose, and condenses the story of the Trojan War into a compact narrative. Ages 9–12.

.Don’t You Know There’s a War On? by Avi
HarperCollins, 2001, 0-3809-7863-6
During WWII, eleven-year-old Howie lives in Brooklyn, where his mom works at the Navy Yard. His pop is at sea. Everyone is making do and going without, but Howie’s mind is on his lovely teacher, Miss Gossim. Ages 9–12.

Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People, and War by Yukio Tsuchiya
Illustrated by Ted Lewin
Houghton Mifflin, 1997, 0-3958-6137-3
Don’t be fooled by the picture book format. A heart-breaking true story of the deliberate killing of zoo animals during the Tokyo air raids in WWII. Ages 9–12.

The Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
St. Martin’s Press, 1984, 0-3122-8007-6
A Harlem teenager, Richie Perry, finds himself confronting war in Vietnam even as he confronts racism in his platoon and his society. Ages 12 and up.

Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdassarian
DK Publishing, 2000, 0-7894-2627-7
Novelization of the author’s uncle’s experience in the Armenian genocide. Ages12 and up.

Masada: the Last Fortress by Gloria D. Miklowitz
William. B. Erdman’s, 1998, 0-8028-5165-7
The Roman army lays siege to the Jewish fortress of Masada, where the defenders are willing to pay for freedom with their lives. Ages 9–12.

My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Simon & Schuster, 1984, 0-0272-2980-7
A perennial favorite about the American Revolution and its impact on one family. Ages 9–12.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Houghton Mifflin, 1989, 0-3955-1060-0
The evacuation of Denmark’s Jews during the Holocaust. Ages 9–12.

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco
Philomel, 1994, 0-3992-2671-0
True story of two very young Union soldiers in the Civil War, one black and onewhite, whose friendship gives them both courage. Ages 9–12.

Shattered: Stories of Children and War edited by Jennifer Armstrong
Knopf, 2002, 0-3758-1112-5
Twelve short stories about the effects of war on children. Ages 9–12.

Smiling for Strangers by Gaye Hicylmaz
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000, 0-3743-7081-8
Fourteen-year-old orphaned Nina flees war-torn Sarajevo, following the advice of her grandfather, who was a partisan against the Nazis. Ages 9–12.

Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen
Delacorte, 1998, 0-3853-2498-7
A teenaged Minnesota boy joins the Union Army and sees bloody action in the Civil War. He comes home with “Soldier’s Heart,” the nineteenth century term for shellshock or post traumatic stress disorder. Ages 12 and up.

Troy by Adele Geras
Harcourt, 2001, 0-1521-6492-8
A novel about the Trojan War, focusing on the lives of four different Trojan teenagers. The gods make periodic appearances to provide information about the ongoing war. Ages 12 and up.

War Dog by Martin Booth
Margaret McElderry, 1997, 0-6898-1380-5
Jet, a poacher’s dog, is requisitioned by the British Army in World War II. Told from the point of view of the dog. Ages 12 and up.

When Johnny Went Marching: Young Americans Fight the Civil War
by G. Clifton Wisler
HarperCollins, 2001, 0-6881-6537-0
Nonfiction book on the drummer boys, cadets, boy soldiers, and other young people in the war, with photographs. Ages 9–12.

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi
Houghton Mifflin, 1991, 0-3955-7419-6
Ten-year-old Sookan and her family have endured years of occupation by the Japanese, but now that the war is over Korea is threatened by a new fear: the division of North from South by the Communists. Ages 9–12.