Grenade by Alan Gratz

It’s 1945 and the war in the Pacific between the United States and Japan continues.  Hideki lives on the Japanese occupied island of Okinawa.  The Americans are invading. The desperate Japanese soldiers demand that the Okinawan youth help defend the island.  They give Hideki and other Okinawan students two grenades each and direct them to kill the American invaders with one. Private Ray Majors, a young Marine experiencing his first time in combat, lands on an Okinawan beach.  Enemy Japanese soldiers are everywhere, but so are the Okinawan people. Ray and his squad make their way across the island hoping to gain control and move closer to ending World War II.

Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol

Vera begs her mother to send her to summer sleepover camp.  When her mother finally makes it happen, Vera discovers that Russian camp isn’t everything she thought it would be.  The older girls aren’t very nice. She wants to go home but she can’t. She’s going to have to make the most of it until the summer is over.