8th GRADE

Holocaust-themed Fiction and Nonfiction

Dear, Miles River 8th grade English classes, 
This page of fiction and nonfiction books was created for your Holocaust independent reading assignment. Titles are linked to the library's online catalog where you may place a hold on a copy using your library barcode number (found on the back of your library card) and your PIN (last 4 digits of your telephone #). These are suggested titles, not required titles. Please stop by my desk if you would like more suggestions.
Cheers,
Kim

              Fiction             

The Boy Who Dared, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, 2008. 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.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: a Fable, by John Boyne, 2006. 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 wire fence.



Daniel, Half Human: and the Good Nazi, by David Chotjewitz, 2004. In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to power, Daniel learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their beloved Hamburg, Germany, is becoming nightmarish. Also details Daniel and Armin's reunion in 1945 in interspersed chapters.

Annexed, by Sharon Dogar, 2010. Retells the story of Anne Frank from the perspective of Peter, who overcomes an initial loathing for the precocious young diarist before falling in love with her and questioning his faith in light of frightening persecutions.

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, by Margarita Engle, 2009. Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away.

Prisoner B-3087, by Alan Gratz, 2013. Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was eleven, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau.



A Bag of Marbles, based on the memoir by Joseph Joffo; adapted by Kris, 2013. In 1941, 10-year-old Joseph and his older brother, Maurice, must hide their Jewish heritage and undertake a long and dangerous journey from Nazi-occupied Paris to reach their other brothers in the free zone. Graphic format. Pair this with the actual memoir: A Bag of Marbles, by Joseph Joffo. 

Ashes, by Kathryn Lasky, 2010. In 1932 Berlin, 13-year-old Gaby witnesses the beginning of Hitler's rise to power, as soldiers become ubiquitous, her beloved literature teacher starts wearing a jeweled swastika pin, and the family's dear friend, Albert Einstein, leaves the country while Gaby's parents secretly bury his books and papers in their small yard.

The War Within These Walls, by Aline Sax, 2013. Misha and his family do their best to survive in the appalling conditions of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, and ultimately make a final, desperate stand against the Nazis.

Berlin Boxing Club, by Robert Sharenow, 2011. In 1936 Berlin, fourteen-year-old Karl Stern, considered Jewish despite a non-religious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Schmeling while struggling with the realities of the Holocaust.



Maus I, [and] Maus II, by Art Spiegelman, 1986, 1991.  A son struggles to come to terms with the horrific story of his parents and their experiences during the Holocaust and in postwar America, in Spiegelman's two-part, Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller. Graphic format.

Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli, 2003. Captures the hardships and cruelty of life in the ghettos of Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of World War II, through the eyes of a Jewish orphan who must use all his wits and courage to survive unimaginable events and circumstances.

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, 2012. In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein, 2013. Rose Justice is an American pilot with Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. On her way back from a routine flight she is captured by the Germans and sent to Ravensbrück, a notorious concentration camp, where she meets an unforgettable group of women, and vows to tell her fellow prisoners' stories to the world.

Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen, 1992. Becca's grandmother tells her that she is a princess, and after her death, Becca investigates her grandmother's mementos and discovers her harrowing teenage years, including survival in a mass grave and Nazis killing her husband.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, 2005. 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.

               Nonfiction             

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi, by Neal Bascomb, 2013. Recounts how, 16 years after the end of World War II, a team of undercover Israeli agents captured the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, in a remote area of Argentina and brought him to trial in Israel for crimes committed during the Holocaust.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, 2005. Explores the various factors which led many of Germany's young people to pledge their loyalty and support to the dictator and join the Hitler Youth during his rise to power.


His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg, by Louise Borden, 2012. An amazing and inspirational World War II story about how one man saved the lives of many.



Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent, by Pearl Witherington Cornioley, 2013. Pearl Witherington Cornioley, one of the most celebrated female World War II resistance fighters, recounts her life and experience as a special agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).


A Bag of Marbles, by Joseph Joffo; translated from the French by Martin Sokolinsky, 1974. Recounts how two Jewish boys in France--the author and his older brother--begin an odyssey of pain and terror when their father sent them off to the Unoccupied Zone with the warning that they must never admit that they were Jews.

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List, by Leon Leyson, 2013. Traces the story of Holocaust survivor Leon Leyson, who was the youngest child in his family and possibly the youngest of the hundreds of Jews rescued by Oskar Schindler.

Hidden Like Anne Frank: Fourteen True Stories of Survival, by Marcel Prins, 2014. A collection of first-person accounts that share what it was like to go into hiding during World War II. Some children were only three or four years old when they were hidden; some were teenagers.They describe the secret network of brave people who kept them safe. And they share the coincidences and close escapes that made all the difference.