World War II on the Home Front

Davy Bowman's dad looks forward to Halloween more than a kid, and Davy's brother, Bill, flies B-17s. Davy adores these two heroes and tries his best to follow their lead, especially now. World War II has invaded Davy's homefront boyhood. Bill has joined up, breaking their dad's heart. It's an intense, confusing time, and one that will spur Davy to grow up in a hurry. This is one of Richard Peck's finest novels--a tender, unforgettable portrait of the World War II home front and a family's enduring love.

World War II is raging in Europe, and young Tomie finds that everyday life has changed in many ways. Sure, there's still New Year's Eve to celebrate, and he still has to face penmanship and arithmetic in second grade- definitely not his strongest subjects. But now he has to wear an extra sweater to school because they're trying to conserve coal for heating. And a shopping trip to Hartford for Easter outfits seems more urgent in the face of looming shortages. Just as he did in I'm Still Scared, the first installment of The War Years, beloved author Tomie dePaola touchingly illuminates the emotional confusion of a child's life during wartime. Why?is another strong addition to the award-winning 26 Fairmount Avenue series.

Nanami has two grandmothers: Baachan, who lives with her family in Japan, and Gram, who lives in Maine. When Gram comes to visit Japan for the first time, Baachan takes them on a trip to the seashore to gather Wakame, a long, curvy seaweed that floats near the shore. While the three gather their equipment and ride the streetcar toward the beach, Baachan explains about Wakame and other seaweeds. Gram remembers how some seaweeds are used in Maine, and Nanami translates for them both. By the end of the day, Nanami's two grandmothers discover that they have much in common despite being from countries that were on opposing sides in the war they both remember vividly. Now, looking out across the beach at the surfers, dog-walkers, and seaweed gatherers, they share an understanding of this precious peace.

It's September 1943, and eleven-year-old Ellie McKelvey's older brother, Jimmy, has just been drafted. Jimmy has a joyful heart and a kind word for everyone, and he's the only person who thinks Ellie is smart and funny and as beautiful as Lana Turner, the movie star. Ellie can hardly stand to see him go. With Jimmy gone, Aunt Toots moves into his bedroom, Ellie's mother takes a war job at a factory, and everything in Ellie's life seems upside down. But she figures that the war will be over and Jimmy home by Christmas, so as much as she misses him, she keeps her spirits up. Even as families in the neighborhood begin to receive telegrams informing them that their boys are wounded or worse, Ellie never stops believing in Jimmy. In her second work of historical fiction, Mary Ann Rodman captures all the authentic details of life on the homefront during World War II, as well as the fierce love a sister has for her beloved big brother. Jimmy's Stars is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Lost Childhood is the vivid, first-hand account of the horrors of war through the eyes of a child. This real-life memoir breaks a 60-year silence to tell one woman's riveting story of prisoner life during World War II. As a little Dutch girl in Indonesia, Annelex Hofstra's comfortable world was torn apart when she and her family were sent to Japanese prison camps for three and a half years.
The story begins in 1942 when four-year-old Annelex is living on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Her grandfather is a successful planter, and her father is a pilot instructor in the Royal Netherlands Navy. But her carefree childhood ends as the Japanese invade Java, and along with 10,000 other Dutch residents, Annelex's family is rounded up. With few belongings, they are shipped off to interment camps, to a helpless, unknown future. In a shockingly honest narrative, we learn of the tactics used by their captors to dehumanize the Dutch prisoners.
Eventually the hell ends and the family is liberated. But the girl's personal hell plagues her in freedom. World war is replaced by civil war in Indonesia, forcing the family to flee first to Holland and then to the U.S., where the family tries to mend their broken lives.
For 60 years Annelex Hofstra Layson has repressed her early memories, shielding even her husband and children from the horrors of her past. With Lost Childhood, her harrowing ordeal is finally revealed. The author shares her story now to provide hope in young lives torn apart by war, and to inspire future generations to work for peace.

On a summer night in 1942, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding from the Nazis. Until the day they arrested her, more than two years later, she kept a diary. ANNE FRANK is the indespensable visual guide to her tragic, but inspiring story. Produced in association with The Anne Frank House and filled with never-before-published snapshots, school pictures, and photos of the diary and the Secret Annex, this elegantly designed album is both a stand-alone introduction to Anne's life and a photographic companion to a classic of Holocaust literature.

Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn't stop him from fulfilling his dreams. But her daddy's gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her. When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots - and Ida suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won't accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of 'passing,' of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. Hiding one's racial heritage, denying one's family, denying one's self is a heavy burden. And while Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really wants to be.

Based on a true story of World War II. For 12-year-old Petros, World War II feels unreal and far away. What’s real is working in his papa’s garden. Playing marbles with his friends. Fighting with his older brother, Zola. Zola, who must always be first. Who must always be best. But when the Germans invade Greece, the war suddenly comes impossibly close. Overnight, neighbors become enemies. People begin to keep secrets (Petros’s family most of all). And for the first time, Petros has the chance to show Zola that he’s not just a little brother but that he can truly be counted on. Soon what were once just boys’ games become matters of life and death as Petros and Zola each wonder if, like their resistance fighter cousin, they too can make a difference. From the Hardcover edition.

Dirty. Lazy. Good-for-nothing. Jay Thacker is used to hearing himself called names because his dad is half-Navajo. But he's hoping, now that he and his mom have moved to stay with his grandparents because of WWII, that things could be different. Delta is a tiny town in Utah, nothing like Salt Lake, where they used to live. And Jay's grandfather is an elder in the church, a beloved and well-respected man. Jay begins to make friends and even to make some money as he works the fields for his grandfather. There's just one problem: he works alongside a young man named Ken, who's from the camps in nearby Topaz. Which means Ken is a Jap. And Jay's dad, who's been fighting for the navy out in the Pacific, was recently declared Missing in Action. An understated and moving story about an unlikely friendship from the author of the acclaimed SOLDIER BOYS, this is one of Dean Hughes's best novels to date.

One WWII pilot's mission to lift the spirits of children living in war-torn Berlin in 1945 comes to life in this moving middle-grade historical account. After World War II the United States and Britain airlifted food and supplies into Russian-blockaded West Berlin. US Air Force Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen knew the children of the city were suffering. To bring a bit of hope, he began dropping chocolate and chewing gum by parachute. What began as a one-time gesture of compassion turned into an official U.S. Air Force operation. "Operation Little Vittles" grew, as more and more pilots volunteered to drop the parachutes, and donations of candy and cloth poured in from all over. This inspiring story of one man's contribution to the rebuilding of a country after war is a unique look at history. Illustrated with archival photographs, personal photographs from Lt. Gail Halvorsen-the Chocolate Pilot-letters, and documents, Candy Bomber is an important and interesting addition to studies of World War II.

When the first atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," was dropped from the Enola Gay onto Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945, the world changed forever. But the story started long before then, and here Edward T. Sullivan delves into all the advances that led to the making of the most destructive weapons ever invented: the scientific developments of the Manhattan Project, the massive commitment by the Western world to win the great nuclear arms race, and the contributions to the war effort big or small by all those involved. From bus driver to scientist to spy to the president, Sullivan examines all the key personalities concerned, including Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, President Roosevelt, and many more. The dropping of the bomb, as well as the complicated aftermath is also discussed. In this comprehensive book, featuring several arresting black-and-white photographs of the day, Sullivan offers a broad and compelling look at the atomic bomb and its pronounced effects on our world today.

According to legend, a group of Jewish families survived the Holocaust by hiding out for months in the 77 miles of caves in Ukraine known as Priest's Grotto. Cavers Taylor and Nicola chronicle their trip to explore the caves and uncover the story of the survivors.