Remembrance Day is coming up and we wanted to share some of our recommendations for books about the holiday. This is of course only a small selection of what we have to offer, so if you are looking for additional books, check out our online catalogue. Some of the search terms we used were, World War One, World War Two and Remembrance Day. Or you can head to your local branch and one of our staff would be happy to help you find what you are looking for. Are there any books that you like to read at this time of year?
After watching an enemy for a very long time during an endless war, a soldier finally creeps out into the night to the other man's hole and is surprised by what he finds there.
Recommended by Janine from the Winkler Branch
Viann and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it's not only the sisters' relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of right and wrong. With life as they know it changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.
Recommended by Joanna, SCRL Cataloger
Joey the horse recalls his experiences growing up on an English farm, his struggle for survival as a cavalry horse during World War I, and his reunion with his beloved master.
Recommended by Angela from the Manitou Branch
Anneliese and her little brother Peter have been forever changed by the war that took their father's life. One day, while wandering the ruined streets of Munich in search of food, they stumble upon a book exhibit. The great hall is filled with more books than Anneliese can count! Here, Anneliese and Peter meet the lady with the books, who will have a greater impact on their lives than they could ever imagine. The Lady with the Books is based on the true story of Jella Lepman, founder of the International Board on Books for Young people (IBBY) and the International Youth Library. In 1946, her exhibit of children's books from around the world travelled throughout Germany to show “bridges of understanding” between countries. Jella believed that these books would help German children feel connected to others around the world and that they were the best hope of preventing another war.
Recommended by Linda from the Winkler Branch
From the I Am Canada series. Other war books in this series include Sniper Fire, Fire In The Sky and Behind Enemy Lines.
Alistair 'Allie' Morrison lets his friend Mackie talk him into enlisting for WWII, even though he's only 18. After months of endless training Allie's eager for battle. But his first action is not just any battle... it's the disastrous raid on the German-held port of Dieppe. He and his unit are under orders to take one of the main beaches, but they disembark from their landing craft onto a killing ground. As Allie gets his bearings and makes sense of the horror on every side, he witnesses friends advance into a massacre. All told, almost a thousand Canadian soldiers died that day. In the resulting chaotic evacuation, Allie and Mackie are captured as POWs and sent to Stalag VIIIB in Germany. Still shell-shocked from their fighting, the soldiers struggle to maintain their courage. Others, like Mackie, are determined to plot an escape and outwit their captors, at any cost. Historian Jack Granatstein vetted Prisoner of Dieppe to ensure historical accuracy.
Also check out The Story of the Second World War for Children.
The First World War was "total war" on an unprecedented scale. Industrialized nations engaged in mechanized warfare, deploying new and terrifying weapons: airplanes, tanks, zeppelins, giant warships, and poison gas. Using archival photos, maps, and drawings, this fact-packed book explains to children what happened and why, and tells the human stories in a way that brings history vividly to life.
Recommended by Linda from the Winkler Branch
From the Dear Canada series. Also check out Turned Away from this series.
In 1916, in Uxbridge, Ontario, twelve-year-old Eliza, a Presbyterian minister's daughter, chronicles her family's experiences after her two brothers leave for Europe to fight in the war.
It's 1947 and American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a fervent belief that her beloved French cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive somewhere. So when Charlie's family banishes her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister. In 1915, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance to serve when she's recruited to work as a spy for the English. Sent into enemy-occupied France during The Great War, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents, right under the enemy's nose. Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launching them both on a mission to find the truth ...no matter where it leads.
As a boy, Henry Friston dreamed of traveling the world. He thought he was signing up for a lifetime of adventure when he joined the Royal Navy. But when World War I begins, it launches the world, and Henry, into turmoil. While facing enemy fire at Gallipoli, Henry discovers the strength he needs to survive in an unexpected source: a tortoise. And so begins the friendship of a lifetime. Based on true events, and with charming illustrations, this story of war, courage, and friendship will win the hearts of readers.
The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust while learning compassion and love for her fellow human beings. Nonna's writings tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl, born into a family that had known wealth and privileges, was exposed to the concentration camps and learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness.
Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust while learning compassion and love for her fellow human beings. Nonna's writings tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl, born into a family that had known wealth and privileges, was exposed to the concentration camps and learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness.
For the first time, a definitive A-to-Z pictorial history of the main events, characters and mechanisms involved in this momentous war has been compile. This five-part series was produced using some of the most unique and fascinating original footage ever assembled, much of it in original color. Each program takes you through every important aspect of war with a well-paced, thoughtful, and informative narrative.
DVD
Also check out World War Two: Against the Rising Sun
It was the first major conflict of the 20th century, a war that devastated the whole of Europe and expanded across the entire globe, decimating a generation. From the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo to the armistice of 1918, World War One: 1914-1918 provides a complete overview of the war that shaped the modern world from the viewpoint of the servicemen who fought in it, creating a unique graphic novel history of one of the most destructive conflicts of all time.
In times of war, sometimes victory seems like an impossible dream. In 1943, the women of America banded together to make a life for themselves while their husbands and sons fought overseas. Even as the men engaged in war, these women faced battles of their own on the home front. Margo, Dottie, Lucy, and Penny never expected to face the hardships they must now find a way to conquer. But through the power of Christ and the power of friendship, perhaps this Victory Club will achieve more than any of them could have ever imagined.
The Girls of Atomic City
In this book the author traces the story of the unsung World War II workers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee through interviews with dozens of surviving women and other Oak Ridge residents. This is the story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history. The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project's secret cities, it did not appear on any maps until 1949, and yet at the height of World War II it was using more electricity than New York City and was home to more than 75,000 people, many of them young women recruited from small towns across the South. Their jobs were shrouded in mystery, but they were buoyed by a sense of shared purpose, close friendships, and a surplus of handsome scientists and Army men. But against this wartime backdrop, a darker story was unfolding. The penalty for talking about their work, even the most innocuous details, was job loss and eviction. One woman was recruited to spy on her coworkers. They all knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The shocking revelation: the residents of Oak Ridge were enriching uranium for the atomic bomb. Though the young women originally believed they would leave Oak Ridge after the war, many met husbands there, made lifelong friends, and still call the seventy-year-old town home. The reverberations from their work there, work they did not fully understand at the time, are still being felt today.
Also check out Super Spies of World War One
Profiles some well-known spies who worked for Britain, France, Germany, the United States, and Japan.
With photos, memorabilia, and anecdotes, Linda Granfield brings us face-to-face with people from all walks of life who risked everything for their country. These painstakingly-gathered bits and pieces are remnants of conflict on a scale never before witnessed. Hastily-penned letters, notes written in code, and prayers for deliverance form an eloquent portrait of humanity, and a startling comment on the devastation of war.
16-year-old Valya knows what it feels like to fly. She's a pilot who's always felt more at home soaring through the sky than down on earth. But since the Germans surrounded Stalingrad, Valya's been forced to stay on the ground and watch her city crumble.
A powerful chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps. At the height of the Holocaust twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp-mainly Jewish women and girls-were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers. This fashion workshop-called the Upper Tailoring Studio-was established by Hedwig Höss, the camp commandant's wife, and patronized by the wives of SS guards and officers. Here, the dressmakers produced high-quality garments for SS social functions in Auschwitz, and for ladies from Nazi Berlin's upper crust. Drawing on diverse sources-including interviews with the last surviving seamstress-The Dressmakers of Auschwitz follows the fates of these brave women. Their bonds of family and friendship not only helped them endure persecution, but also to play their part in camp resistance. Weaving the dressmakers' remarkable experiences within the context of Nazi policies for plunder and exploitation, historian Lucy Adlington exposes the greed, cruelty, and hypocrisy of the Third Reich and offers a fresh look at a little-known chapter of World War II and the Holocaust.
The popular view of the First World War is dominated by cliche. Young soldiers were led to ghastly deaths in muddy wastes on the Western Front by incompetent generals for reasons that were seemingly futile. And although cliches are not necessarily lies, they are, at best, a selective view of the truth.
DVD
Recommended by Janine from the Winkler Branch
Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.
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