Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy – This story traces the life of Sylvia Perlmutter, one of the few children to survive the ghettos of World War II, Poland. She’s forced by the Germans to wear a yellow star on her clothes to signify her status and to endure the humiliation that comes with it. In the end, however, it’s the same yellow star that is her salvation.
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli – Set in the streets of World War II war-torn Poland, this story is told through the eyes of an orphan boy, Misha Pilsudski. He’s called Gypsy. Jew. Stopthief – and admires
the Jackboots who have given him those names – until he realizes the Jackboots are not taking the Jews on the trains away to a better life.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – This gives a close-up look at life in war-torn Afghanistan. It explores friendship, class
struggle and betrayal. Written so beautifully, I had to often check to make sure it was a work of fiction.
a girl, Tamar, living in present-day England, inherits a box from her grandfather containing a series of clues and encoded messages. Her grandfather had never talked about the war, and it reminded me how many unsung heroes did their part to preserve life the way we know it, yet never asked for any credit.
The Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson -set in feudal Japan, Jiro becomes an apprentice at one of Japan’s most famous puppet theaters amidst riots by angry mobs of Japan’s starving citizens. He learns responsibilities greater than his craft and stumbles upon a secret that nearly gets him killed.
story of a 15-year-old Lithuanian girl, Lina, who is forced by the Soviets into a Siberian work camp. She is separated from her father and forced to endure unimaginable hardships, using her love of art as a way to embed clues as to where she can be found.
do for a book. For a story? In 1939 Nazi Germany,Liesel Meminger steals
books, but they become much more to her than simple stories. They become a lifeline, a way for her and her neighbors to survive the war’s bombings.
The First Hundred Years of Nino Cochise; The Untold Story of an Apache Indian Chief, by A Kinney Griffith – although there is some controversy surrounding the authenticity of the character interviewed for this story, this was one of my favorite books as a teen, whichI read at least twice. There was plenty of action to keep me, an energetic teen, riveted.
picks – read when I was a teen.
Shogun, by James Clavell – An amazing look at feudal Japan through the eyes of a shipwrecked, English explorer. He comes to learn the Japanese culture, falls in love with a Japanese maiden, yet still dreams of returning home.
at the early history of the United States in what was then the Far West (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan) through the eyes of a frontiersman by the name of Simon Kenton. It explores his hardships, and his role in opening the Northwest Territory to vast numbers of English settlers which ultimately led to a clash between two cultures; the white settlers and the native Americans whose lands were encroached upon.