When Luba finds children 54 abandoned children in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, she decides to rescue them. She brings them back to her barrack to care for them. She convinces the women in her barrack to take the risk to care for and save these children. She manages to find extra food for the children and medicine when needed. This is an amazing true story of a lesser-known heroine of the Holocaust.
Category Archives: Historical Fiction
Willy and Max: A Holocaust Story by Amy Littlesugar
Willy and Max are friends in Belgium when the Nazis invade. Max and his father visit Willy’s family on the night they flee Belgium, asking the family to hide a painting. Willy hides the painting, and never sees Max again. When Willy is an adult, he is contacted by an art curator who found the painting Willy hid. Willy and the curator try to find Max.
Benno and the Night of Broken Glass by Meg Wiviott
This is the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) as told by Benno the cat. Benno roams his neighborhood and begins to notice changes in the way different families are treated. After the Night of Broken Glass, Benno notices that certain families stay in his neighborhood and some he never sees again.
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.
Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II by Alan Gratz
Michael O’Shaunessy, originally from Ireland, lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Michael has joined the Hitler Youth, but Michael has a secret. Michael and his parents are spies for the Allies passing on information and occasionally assisting downed pilots to escape capture. Then Michael happens upon the plans for Projekt 1065, a Nazi secret plan that could change the outcome of the war. Michael is prepared to take even bigger risks to get the plans to the Allies!
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Refugee follows the lives of three children and their families at different times in history when they needed to flee their homeland to find sanctuary in another country. Told in alternating chapters, follow Josef and his family fleeing from Berlin, Germany during the Nazi occupation in the 1930s aboard the St Louis hoping to find sanctuary in Cuba. In 1994, Isabela and her family are fleeing Cuba hoping to find asylum and freedom in Miami, Florida. In 2015, Mahmoud and his family are fleeing civil war in Syria hoping to make their way to a safe haven in Germany. Follow these courageous children on their dangerous journies to find a better life and home in a new country.
If I Ever Get Out Of Here by Erick Gansworth
Lewis Blake is lonely. Because Lewis is so smart, he is one of the only “rez” kids in his classes at the white school. He is completely ignored by his prejudicial peers. Then George Haddonfield, a new kid from the Air Force base, meets Lewis and they strike up a friendship. Lewis and George share an interest in rock and roll, especially anything Beatles. Because of his friendship with George, Lewis isn’t “invisible” any more. Unfortunately, Lewis attracts the attention of a particularly vicious and powerful bully, Evan Reiniger. Lewis spends his time navigating reservation and family “rules” while trying to maintain a friendship with his white friend, and avoiding Evan Reiniger whenever possible.
The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
The year is 1241. Sweet Dolssa flees Tolosa accused of heresy by Father Lucien. Father Lucien tracks his heretic with determination. Botille, a young matchmaker from Bajas, discovers Dolssa near death along the river. Feeling the call to protect Dolssa, Botille with the help of a few others, assists and hides the young girl. Botille and her sisters nurse Dolssa back to life, and care for her as she regains her strength. Harboring a heretic brings the penalty of death. Father Lucien searches doggedly for Dolssa for he wants nothing more than to burn this dangerous heretic at the stake. Unexplainable events start to happen in Bajas, and word of the young girl’s miracles spread throughout the region. Dolssa’s passion will change the lives she touches forever.
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
The Sunderly family has left the comforts of their home in Kent, England to accompany Reverend Erasmus Sunderly to the island of Vane where he has been commissioned to assist on an archeological dig. Set during Victorian times when women have few rights, Reverend Sunderly’s young daughter Frances lives a double life. Frances is intrigued by science. She fancies herself a scientist and is extremely observant of her surroundings. Because she goes unnoticed, she learns many secrets. She has discovered that not everything about her family is what it seems to be. These secrets lead to her father’s death. His death was not accidental, nor was it a suicide. Frances is determined to seek justice for her father, and in doing so will learn even more dangerous secrets about her father and his work.
The Hired Girl by Laura Am Schlitz
Joan Skaggs is a bright fourteen-year-old who lives with her father and brothers on Steeple Farm. Farm life is hard in 1911. When Joan’s mother dies, her father will not allow her to return to school. Her mother always hoped that Joan would use her education to get off the farm, but it looks like Joan is destined to keep her father’s house while her brothers and father toil in the fields. Miss Chandler, Joan’s teacher, visits Joan on the farm one day and presents her with a beautiful journal encouraging Joan to practice her gift of writing. Her father, agitated by Miss Chandler’s interference, chases Miss Chandler off the farm mortifying and embarrassing Joan. How could her father be so unrefined? Joan is not one to be kept down on the farm. Daily she plans her escape to a better life, maybe not the one her mother had dreamed for her, but definitely an escape from the harsh life at Steeple Farm. Joan makes her escape to the big city, and an adventure ensues which Joan shares with readers in her journal.