Voices in Wartime

Hahn, Mary Downing.  Following in My Own Footsteps (HarperTrophy, 1998).

As World War II rages in Europe, there are battles closer to home for sixth-grader Gordy, even after his physically and verbally abusive, alcoholic father is put behind bars. Gordy knows his family is a mess?as readers of Stepping on the Cracks will remember, his four younger siblings are like "puppies nobody'd bothered to train," one of his older brothers has deserted the Army, and his mother has become "dull and vacant." Still, the feisty protagonist is quick to defend them in front of his prim (and wealthy) grandmother when the family moves from Maryland into her house in North Carolina. Before long Gordy wonders if the new clothes and regular meals provided by his grandmother are enough to change his life?especially when his mother decides to give her husband a second chance. While some elements of the plot are predictable if not overdramatized, the complex characterizations, period setting and Gordy's brave attempts to break a cycle of violence will hold readers' interest. (Publisher’s Weekly)

Hahn, Mary Downing.  Stepping on the Cracks (HarperTrophy, Reprint, 1992).

Margaret and her best friend Elizabeth both have brothers fighting the war against Hitler and, like everyone else they know, they are filled with feelings of patriotism. But the girls are also involved in their own personal war at home.  Gordy Smith, the worst bully in sixth grade, teases and torments them, and Margaret is scared to death of him.  However, when Gordy and his pals Toad and Doug grow bolder than ever, Margaret and Elizabeth come up with a daring plan to get even. That's when the girls discover a shocking secret about Gordy that turns their lives upside-down and draws them into a startling confrontation with family, friends...and their own strongly held ideas.

Hest, Amy and Sonja Lamut (Illustrator).  Love You, Soldier (Candlewick, 2000).

Katie is just seven and her father is leaving, going to fight in a faraway war, and no one knows when he will come home again.  With Papa away, Katie and her mother do the best they can. Katie makes friends with Old Mrs. Leitstein downstairs. Mama's best friend Louise comes to visit, and then to stay, because her husband is fighting in the war, too, and Louise is going to have a baby.

One stormy day while Mama is at work, Louise says the baby is coming, and Katie helps her through the blizzard to the hospital. Mrs. Leitstein and Louise and her new baby come to seem almost like family to Katie. Then one day, a telegram man brings Mama an envelope with stars on it, and life will never be the same. Through Katie's keen and tender eyes, Amy Hest tells an intensely moving story about the changes war brings to one family.

Hoobler, Thomas and Dorothy Hoobler.  Aloha Means Come Back: The Story of a World War II Girl (Silver Burdett Press, 1993).

Laura and her mother join her Navy father in Hawaii in 1941, where suspicion against the Japanese American residents runs high in an atmosphere of expectation that the United States and Japan will go to war.

Holliday, Laurel.  Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries (Washington Square Press, 1996).

Diary entries written by young people in ghettos, concentration camps, cities, and a Copenhagen prison camp offer insightful comments and glimpses of life during World War II.  Each selection is introduced by a brief biography that includes the author's name, country, age, family circumstances before and during the war, and concludes with circumstances of death or postwar life. Nine girls and 14 boys, Jews and gentiles, aged 10 to 18, are featured. Teens should be interested in reading about the sexploits of Joan Wyndham, a 16-year-old London resident; her suburban neighbor, Colin Perry, 18, and his detailed recording of air raids; resistance fighter Hannah Senesh, 17; and Danish spy Kim Malthe-Brun, 18. (Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA for School Library Journal)

Homan, Lynn M. and Thomas Reilly.  Tuskegee Airmen Story (Pelican Publishing Company, 2002).

After two African American children find their grandfather's World War II uniform and medals, their grandmother encourages them to ask him about the war. He tells them about his experiences in the Tuskegee Airmen fighter group, the difficulties of living in a segregated society, and how the African Americans' contribution helped win the war abroad and the war against segregation at home. The authors, who also wrote Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen (2001) for adults, undoubtedly know their subject, though the presentation here is somewhat stilted. The fictional framework, with its sometimes-contrived questions adds little; however, the grandfather's narrative does a good job of explaining who the Tuskegee Airmen were and what they achieved. Similarly, the paintings of the children and grandparents that illustrate the present-day story are more stilted than those showing the Tuskegee Airmen and their world. Apparently the only book on this subject accessible to young children, this will be a useful addition to many school and public library collections. (Carolyn Phelan for Booklist)

Hostetter, Joyce Moyer.  Blue (Calkins Creek Books, 2006).

Thirteen-year-old Ann Fay always wanted to be just like her father, but when he gives her a pair of overalls before going off to fight Hitler, her feelings are mixed: "Wearing britches so I could take the place of my daddy wasn't the same as wearing them so I could climb trees." Minding the home front gets harder after she loses her youngest brother to a polio outbreak, then contracts the disease herself. Hostetter weaves her own North Carolina community's history into heartfelt fiction, marked by an agreeable, vernacular narrative and unobtrusive symbolism surrounding the color blue--the hue of both Ann Fay's overalls and the pesky wisteria vine that, like grown-up responsibility made palpable, threatens to overtake her victory garden. An incongruous structural rift mars the novel's latter half, set in the polio hospital, where the heart-tugging family drama gives way to a programmatic story line about an obstacle-laden friendship between Ann Fay and an African American patient. Still, the intriguing history of the illness and the powerful first-person voice will propel readers through to the novel's deeply satisfying conclusion.  (Jennifer Mattson for Booklist)

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki.  Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment (Bantam Books, 1983).

Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons and a dance band called the Jive Bombers who would play any popular song except the  nation's #1 hit: "Don't Fence Me In." Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.

Hughes, Dean.  Since You Went Away (Deseret Book Company, 2005).

Wally Thomas didn’t know how many days and nights he had been marching up the coast of the Bataan Peninsula.  He was almost too numb to think, too full of pain.  He tried to keep a steady pace, but the guards pressured the prisoners to keep moving, forced them close together, and in their exhaustion the men stumbled and knocked each other off stride.  When that happened, the extra effort was almost overwhelming; there were times when Wally though he would go down - and not get up - the way so many other prisoners had already done.  With each day getting worse in the Bataan death march, Wally could die of hunger, exposure, or even violence.  Will his growing faith be enough to pull him through?

Bobbi, now a nurse in the navy, meets a handsome young officer.  She’s not sure how she feels about him, however, or whether he feels anything at all for her. Alex is in training as a paratrooper, but can he stick it out?  And even if he can, how can he bring himself to fight the German people, whom he learned to love on his mission? Even young Gene knows he’ll be joining the service, but he wonders what kind of a soldier he’ll make.

Hughes, Dean.  Rumors of War (Deseret Book Company, 2005).

The elders could see nothing but smoke until they turned the corner onto the street where the fire was.  And then, both of them stopped.  "The synagogue!" Elder Thomas said.  It had never occurred to him that anyone - even the Nazis - would do such a thing.Elder Thomas got his camera out.  He snapped the shot but then heard someone say, in German, "What are you doing there?" He tucked the camera inside his coat, under his arm.  He tried to appear normal, but his heart was suddenly beating hard.  A man was crossing the narrow street and coming toward them. "Making pictures?" the man asked as he walked closer.  Elder Thomas took a better look.  He saw what he feared: the black uniform with silver trim and braided hat.  Gestapo. Elder Alex Thomas wants only to teach the gospel to the people of Germany.  But it soon becomes obvious that he will never complete his mission.  War is coming, and that will affect not only Elder Thomas but also his family back home in Salt Lake City.

Hughes, Dean.  Far from Home (Deseret Book Company, 2005).

All right, let’s go.  Alex saw terror in Howie’s eyes as he took off before Alex could. Howie ran hard, angling back and forth only a little, mostly just getting as far away as afast as he could. Alex was a faster runner, and he could make a few more zigs and zags in his path and still keep up. For a time, it all seemed unnecessary. The two were keeping away from the road, and no one else was nearby. But then bullets began to thump into the plowed ground around them, and suddenly Howie went down. In Far From Home, the third volume of Children of the Promise, Alex Thomas is still battling the Nazi forces. He’s also worried about whether or not he can preserve the lives of the men in his company, especially Howie, a particularly young and inexperienced soldier. But his biggest concern is staying alive for his wife, Anna, in England. In Japan, Wally is still a prisoner of war. Abused by his captors, he’s forced to work long hours in the coal mines. Will he learn from his experience, or will it just make him bitter? Or will he even survive? In Hawaii, Bobbi is hoping for word from her boyfriend, Richard. When she learns that his ship has gone down, she wonders is he’s gone down with it and as the days pass, the odds of his survival don’t look good. In Germany, Heinrich Stolz is working as a spy for British Intelligence. But as much as he can, he’s also looking for his missing son, Peter. When he loses his identification papers, he wonders if he can escape from Germany alive. On the home front, stake president Alexander Thomas is becoming wealthy from his weapons factory, which is actually being run by his wife, Bea. But their teenage daughter La Rue is asserting her independence more and more, and they’re not sure what to do about it. They’re also wondering if they’ll ever be together as a family again. Far From Home is a moving, powerful novel about the effects of adversity, and about the love of family members for each other. 

Hughes, Dean.  Children of Promise (Deseret Book Company, 2005).

The elders could see nothing but smoke until they turned the corner onto the street where the fire was. And then, both of them stopped. The synagogue! Elder Thomas said. It had never occurred to him that anyone, even the Nazis would do such a thing. Elder Thomas got his camera out. He snapped the shot but then heard someone say, in German, “What are you doing there?” He tucked the camera inside his coat, under his arm. He tried to appear normal, but his heart was suddenly beating hard. A man was crossing the narrow street and coming toward them.  “Making pictures?” the man asked as he walked closer. Elder Thomas took a better look. He saw what he feared: the black uniform with silver trim and braided hat. Gestapo. Elder Alex Thomas wants only to teach the gospel to the people of Germany. But it soon becomes obvious that he will never complete his mission. War is coming, and that will affect not only Elder Thomas but also his family back home in Salt Lake City. In the family is Wally, Elder Thomas’s younger brother, who usually just wants ot have a good time, but lately doesn’t seem to care much about anything. There’s his sister Bobbi, who is supposed to marry Phil Clark, the most eligible bachelor in the Salt Lake Valley. The problem is, she can’t ignore her attraction to Dr. Stinson, a University of Utah professor who’s not a member of the Church. And there are Elder Thomas’s parents, D. Alexander Thomas, stake president and his wife, Bea, who want their children to be true to the values and ideals they’ve taught them. But President and Sister Thomas are finding they can’t just tell their children what to do anymore, and they’re worried about what will happen when the United States enters a war that no one seems able to stop.

Hughes, Dean.  Soldier Boys (Simon Pulse, Reprint, 2003).

At the age of fifteen, Dieter's blind devotion gets him promoted from Hitler Youth into the German army. Dieter's determined to prove his allegiance and bravery all costs. Spence, just sixteen, drops out of his Utah high school to begin training as a paratrooper. Spence wants to prove to his friends and family that he really can be something. Dieter’s and Spence’s worst fear was that the war would end too soon—that they wouldn't get the chance to prove themselves. But when they finally see the action they were hoping for, it's like nothing they could have ever imagined. 

Hughes, Dean.  When We Meet Again (Deseret Book Company, 2001).

Following the Battle of the Bulge, Alex Thomas is reassigned — not without reluctance — to an intelligence unit in Germany. The new assignment challenges Alex's deepest moral values and is more life threatening than combat. As a POW in Japan, Wally suffers torture that may only find relief in death, while Bobbi sorts out her true feelings when she runs into Professor David Stinson thousands of miles away from home. 

As the Thomas siblings face new trials in this fourth installment of Dean Hughes's best-selling series, the tides of war appear to ebb as Germany falls to allied forces in Europe and Japan's grip on the Pacific is loosened by a new, extremely powerful weapon—the atomic bomb. Don't miss this exciting episode in the five-volume series. 

Hughes, Dean.  As Long As I Have You (Deseret Book Company, 2000).

In As Long As I Have You, the final volume of the Children of the Promise series, author Dean Hughes presents a moving picture of what life was like for an ordinary Latter Day Saints family at the end of World War II.

Bruning, John Robert, Jr.  Elusive Glory: African-American Heroes of World War II (Avisson Press Inc., First edition, 2001).

The premise of this slim volume is that African-American men who fought for the U.S. during World War II struggled against immense odds to overcome institutional prejudice and pave the way for a future desegregated military. Fifteen individuals who served in the ground forces or were pilots in the air corps are profiled. The best-known figure is Ben Davis, Jr., who flew scores of combat missions with the Tuskegee Red Tails. Short chapters show how each of these individuals contributed during their actual time in combat rather than covering their entire lives. Through introductions to the two sections and an epilogue, Bruning ties these stories together to emphasize a greater message. These men exemplified courage in fighting for a country that had not yet recognized them as equal members but would later honor them for their bravery and sacrifice. They were pioneers in getting the U.S. government to change the face of our fighting forces to represent Americans of all backgrounds-based on merit, not ethnicity.  (Janet Woodward for School Library Journal)

Butterworth, Emma Macalik.  As the Waltz Was Ending (Scholastic Press, 1985).

An autobiographical account of a young girl whose ballet career with the Vienna State Opera was interrupted by the invasion of the Nazis and who later had to fight for her life during the Russian occupation.

Carter, Walter Ford and Terry Golway.  No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love: A Son's Journey to Normandy (Smithsonian Books, 2004).

Walter Ford Carter's father, a family doctor, died during World War II in Normandy when the author was four years old and his brother seven. His mother Fernie was devastated. She never remarried and didn't speak about her husband, Norval Carter. Walter Ford grew up in West Virginia knowing his father as 'a smiling face behind glass ... forever thirty-two years old.' He rightly calls war widows like his mother 'uncelebrated heroes of that celebrated age.'

Charlesworth, Monique.  The Children’s War (Knopf, 2005).

This is the story of two children caught in the midst of war. It is 1939 and thirteen-year-old Ilse, half-Jewish, has been sent out of Germany by her Aryan mother to a place of supposed safety. Her journey takes her from the labyrinthine bazaars of Morocco to Paris, a city made hectic at the threat of Nazi invasion. At the same time in Germany, Nicolai, a boy miserably destined for the Nazi Youth movement, finds comfort in the friendship of Ilse’s mother, the nursemaid hired to take care of his young sister. Gripping and poignant, The Children’s War is a stunning novel of wartime lives, of parents and children, of adventure and self-discovery.

Childress, Mark.  V for Victor (Random House Publishing Group, 1998).

Alabama, 1942. The war is everywhere, but Victor—a sixteen-year old boy sent by his father to care for his dying grandmother on a lonely island in Mobile Bay—can only dream of it. Then he wakes one amazing night to a thunderous roar from the Bay, and watches as a thug burns his boat. He also discovers a decomposing corpse, witnesses a near-seduction . . . and sees the ominous shadow of an enemy submarine surfacing at night.

Coerr, Eleanor.  Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Putnam Juvenile, Reissue edition, 1999).

Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic--the star of her school's running team. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon gravely ill with leukemia, the "atom bomb disease," Sadako faces her future with spirit and bravery. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again. Based on a true story, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes celebrates the extraordinary courage that made one young woman a heroine in Japan.

Cooper, Susan.  Dawn of Fear (Harcourt Paperbacks, 2007).

Derek and his friends, living outside of London during World War II, regard the frequent air raids with more fascination than fear--after all, they can barely remember a time without them. The boys are thrilled when school is canceled for a few days due to a raid, giving them time to work on their secret camp. But when their camp is savagely attacked by a rival gang from the neighborhood, the harsh reality of the violence surrouding them suddenly crashes down upon Derek and his friends—and a long night of bombing changes his feelings about the war forever.

Cormier, Robert.  Heroes (Laurel Leaf, 2000).

Francis Joseph Cassavant is eighteen. He has just returned home from the Second World War, and he has no face. He does have a gun and a mission: to murder his childhood hero. Francis lost most of his face when he fell on a grenade in France. He received the Silver Star for bravery, but was it really an act of heroism? Now, having survived, he is looking for a man he once admired and respected, a man adored by many people, a man who also received a Silver Star for bravery. A man who destroyed Francis's life.

Cormier, Robert.  Other Bells for Us to Ring (Laurel Leaf, 2000).

Darcy is having a tough time. Her father is missing in action, her mother retreats into migraines and silence, and her best friend Kathleen Mary disappears overnight. Also, Darcy, a Unitarian, has a crisis of faith that she attempts to resolve with a secret visit to an elderly, miracle-wielding Catholic nun. While Cormier effectively evokes the streets and tenements of Darcy's World War II Frenchtown, the characters he places there never come to life. Flat and two-dimensional, they fail to engage readers' sensibilities. The most "alive" vignettes in this low-key title are the most sensational--the suicide leap of a disturbed young woman and the violent outbursts of Kathleen Mary's alcoholic father stand out with shocking clarity. The least affecting moments are those that are supposed to be the most touching; Darcy's visit with the elderly, dying nun and the return of her father are so understated they elicit little or no sympathetic response. As Darcy's voice does not mesh with her characterization as an 11-year-old innocent, it is never bright enough to light the dark environs in which Cormier places her. The news of Kathleen Mary's death and the "miracle of the bells" that accompanies it have no spiritual resonance--there is little in the characterization or plot to make this Christmas miracle real for readers. Kathleen Mary's climactic miracle message to Darcy is unfortunately unbelievable, and, symptomatic of this book, without emotional impact.  (Janice M. Del Negro, Chicago Public Library for Publisher’s Weekly)

Davies, Jacqueline.  Where the Ground Meets the Sky (Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2004).

Twelve-year-old Hazel Moore and her mother arrive at Los Alamos, New Mexico, to be reunited with her physicist father. It is 1944, and war is raging on five continents. Hazel doesn't know why her family has come to this mysterious, remote place. She doesn't know what her father is working on, night and day, in the secret laboratory. But she's determined to find out. Will she be able to uncover the mystery of Los Alamos? And how will the secrets of this place change her family forever?

Denenberg, Barry.  Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii 1941 (Scholastic, 2003).

In her diary, twelve-year-old Amber describes moving to Hawaii in 1941 and experiencing the horror of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 

Denenberg, Barry.  One Eye Laughing, The Other Weeping (Scholastic, 2000).

During the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Austria, twelve-year-old Julie escapes to America to live with her relatives in New York City.

Denenberg, Barry.  The Journal of Ben Uchida (Scholastic, 1999).

Twelve-year-old Ben Uchida keeps a journal of his experiences as a prisoner in a Japanese internment camp in Mirror Lake, California, during World War II.

Dillon, Elis.  Children of Bach (Faber and Faber Ltd., 1995).

Dillon, a prolific Irish author, uses the backdrop of WW II Budapest to stage a riveting drama about Jewish children who escape the Nazis. Peter, only 14, finds himself in charge of his younger brother and sister and the sister's friend when they come home from school and discover that their parents, famous musicians, have been arrested by the Nazis along with other Jews in the community. Aware of the perils that loom over them, the children at first seek refuge in music as they puzzle out their options. But when their Aunt Eva miraculously returns (she's outwitted her would-be captors), they enlist the help of a neighbor and hatch a daring plan. Courage coexists with human vulnerability, while the ironies of the title are exploited subtly and to excellent effect. Dillon may fail to suggest the extent of Jewish suffering at the hands of Germans and indifferent Hungarians--the enemy here is rather too easily deceived, the neighbors all willing to risk their own lives, the children all but unaffected by the disappearance and probable death of their parents--but she sustains the suspense so well and engenders such concern for her characters that their plight assumes paramount importance for the reader as well.  (Publisher’s Weekly)

Dowswell, Paul.  True Stories of the Second World War (Usborne, November 2003).

Recounting the stories of some of the most heroic, devastating and pivotal moments of World War II, this book gives young readers a strong sense of the suffering, but also the bravery involved in the war with an approachable insight into this conflict.

Walbert, Kate.  The Gardens of Kyoto (Virago Press, New edition, 2002).

In a mesmerizing debut novel of romance and grief, a woman looks back on her coming of age in the long shadow of World War II and tells about the death of her favorite cousin, Randall, at Iwo Jima. When Ellen receives a package containing Randall's diary and a book called The Gardens of Kyoto, her bond to him is cemented and the mysteries of his short life starts to unravel.

Walkins, Paul.  Forger (Picador USA, 2001).

On the eve of World War II, David Halifax, a young American painter, receives a scholarship to come to Paris and work under the tutelage of the mysterious Russian artist Alexander Pankratov. But as Nazi forces encroach, Halifax realizes the true purpose of his visit: to forge masterworks of the Paris museums, and with the aid of a wily art trader, barter the fakes to Hitler's legion of art dealers. What develops is a riveting cat-and-mouse game that moves through Paris's silent streets, through the tunnels beneath its museums, and eventually into the war-torn countryside of Normandy.

Wallner, Michael.  April in Paris (Doubleday Publishing, 2007).

A suspenseful and dramatic story of impossible love between a German soldier and a French Resistance fighter in World War Two Paris.In 1943, Michel Roth is a young soldier working in the German army’s back offices in occupied Paris. But his fluency in French gets Roth a new task when the Gestapo find themselves in need of a translator for the confessions of interrogated French resisters.

After work Roth chooses another path – he slips out of his hotel carrying a bag of civilian clothes and steals into an alley where he changes personas, becoming Monsieur Antoine, a young Frenchman. He strolls the streets of Paris, where one day he meets Chantal, daughter of an antiquarian bookseller. They fall in love, and when Chantal warns him away from the notorious café Turachevsky, favoured nightspot for German officers and the French women who entertain them, Michel believes it is out of jealousy. Too late he discovers that she is a member of the Resistance, and his naiveté leaves Michel on the other side of the SS interrogation machine. What follows is a tale of desperate cat and mouse through Paris, and into the devastated French countryside at the end of the war, when neighbours are quick to betray neighbours, and even to take revenge into their own hands. 

Walsh, Michael.  As Time Goes By (Grand Central Publishing 1998).

The story of the four men and one woman of "Casablanca" continues in this mesmerizing tale of wartime adventure and intrigue. The questions that "Casablanca" left hanging are finally answered.

Wander, Fred.  The Seventh Wall (W.W. Norton,  2007).

He grew up on the street, a high school dropout. In 1938 he left his mother and sister behind in Vienna and fled on foot to France, where later he was put on a train to Auschwitz. Transported from camp to camp, Fred Wander was haunted for twenty-five years by the crystalline, episodic stories that chronicle the plight of his fellow inmates. Only after the tragic death of his little daughter did these voices pour forth. The result was this novel, published in East Germany in 1970. Finally it appears in English in this masterful translation, its haunting cadences evoking Levi and Celan, its backstory as heartrending as Suite Française. Wander demonstrates that the survival of a single man is a collaborative enterprise. The Seventh Well, named after the well of truth, recalls Dante's Inferno with its mesmerizing descent into evil. Its existence is a miracle.

Warren, Andrea.  Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps (Scholastic, 2002).

What was the secret to surviving the death camps? How did you keep from dying of heartbreak in a place of broken hearts and broken bodies? "Think of it as a game, Jack," an older prisoner tells him. "Play the game right and you might outlast the Nazis." Caught up in Hitler's Final Solution to annihilate Europe's Jews, fifteen-year-old Jack is torn from his family and thrown into the nightmarish world of the concentration camps.

Despite intolerable conditions, Jack resolves not to hate his captors, and vows to see his family again. He forges friendships with other prisoners, and together they struggle to make it one more hour, one more day. But even with his strong will to live, can Jack survive the life-and-death game he is forced to play with his Nazi captors? 

Water, Sarah.  The Night Watch (Riverhead Trade, Reprint, 2006).

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners-three women and a young man with a past-whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.

Waugh, Evelyn.  Men at Arms (Penguin Books Ltd, New edition, 2001).

Men at Arms is the first volume of Evelyn Waugh's masterful WW II trilogy about war, religion and politics. It is followed by Officers and Gentlemen and The End of the Battle.  Meet Guy Crouchback, a 35-year-old divorced Catholic. Though the armed services really don't want him, he manfully succeeds in joining the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. There he meets Apthorpe, an eccentric African who is devoted to his "thunderbox" (aka chemical closet). Together they make quite a team. 

Waugh, Evelyn.  Officers and Gentlemen (Back Bay Books, Reissue edition, 1979).

Portrays the events of the Second World War as seen through the jaded and melancholy eyes of Guy Crouchback, a middle-aged civilian who joins the Halberdiers, a venerable British army regiment, at the start of the fighting.

Waugh, Evelyn.  The End of the Battle (Back Bay Books, Reissue edition, 1979).

The end of WW II finds Guy Crouchback, once again in England, radiating despair from behind his desk.  But then his training as a commando and his facility with Italian land him one last assignment—liaison work, not in Italy, but with Tito's forces in Yugoslavia.

Waugh, Evelyn.  Put Out More Flags (Little Brown Company, 1977).

This comic novel of life in Britain during the early days of the Second World War is set mainly among the fashionable demimonde of aristocratic London. It portrays a society thrown into a mild upheaval by the prospect of imminent ruin and death, but not quite unhinged enough to lose sight of who does and does not belong in the best regiments and clubs. For many, the new openness brought on by the enforced mixing of classes within military life marks the end of an era. But for the clever and the unscrupulous, like the ne'er-do-well Basil Seal, it is the moment they have waited for all their lives.

Webb, James.  Emperor’s General (Bantam Books, 2000).

Jay Marsh, Wall Street millionaire and grand old man of the diplomatic corps, takes a sentimental journey to the scene of his first triumphs and agonies, Manila, where as a brash young captain during World War Two he served as aide-de-camp and confidant to General Douglas MacArthur. Now, as the senior statesmen stands in the serene garden of the ambassador's residence, his mind reels back in time..." "In the final days of the war in the Pacific, the Philippines are retaken by the Allies under the command of General MacArthur, paving the way for Japan's surrender. MacArthur enlists Captain Marsh to be his emissary to the imperial government, a mission that takes the junior officer into the shadow world of postwar Tokyo. As Marsh undertakes the delicate task of opening a dialogue with the emperor, he becomes ensnared in a web of deceit, witnesses a grave injustice, commits a life-altering act of betrayal - and discovers shocking truths about MacArthur the world was never meant to know.

Weil, Jiri.  Mendelssohn Is on the Roof (Northwestern University Press, 1998).

On the roof of Prague's concert hall, Julius Schlesinger, aspiring SS officer, is charged with the removal of the statue of the Jew Mendelssohn--but which one is he? Remembering his course on "racial science," Schlesinger instructs his men to pull down the statue with the biggest nose. Only as the statue topples does he recognize the face of Richard Wagner. This is just the beginning in Weil's novel, which traces the transformation of ordinary lives in Nazi-occupied Prague.

Wellum, Geoffrey. First Light (Wiley, 2001)

In First Light, Geoffrey Wellum tells the inspiring, often terrifying true story of his coming of age amid the roaring, tumbling dogfights of the fiercest air war the world had ever seen. It is the story of an idealistic schoolboy who couldn’t believe his luck when the RAF agreed to take him on as a "pupil pilot" at the minimum age of seventeen and a half in 1939. In his fervor to fly, he gave little thought to the coming war. 

Wescott, Glenway.  Apartment in Athens (New York Review Books Classics, 2004).

Like Wescott's extraordinary novella The Pilgrim Hawk (which Susan Sontag described in The New Yorker as belonging "among the treasures of 20th-century American literature"), Apartment in Athens concerns an unusual triangular relationship. In this story about a Greek couple in Nazi-occupied Athens who must share their living quarters with a German officer, Wescott stages an intense and unsettling drama of accommodation and rejection, resistance and compulsion—an account of political oppression and spiritual struggle that is also a parable about the costs of closeted identity.

Westheimer, David.  Death is Lighter than a Feather (University of North Texas Press, 1995). 

On May 25, 1945, while American and Japanese forces on Okinawa were locked in bitter struggle, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff sent out plans for an amphibious invasion which would subjugate Japan. "Operation Olympic" was to seize Kyushu, while "Operation Coronet" was to strike directly against the Tokyo area. Westheimer's meticulously researched novel about this plan startled readers in the 1970's. Reviews and comments about the original: " . . . one begins to understand the Japanese and to feel nearly the same relief when the wish to die for the emperor is full satisfied...[They] appear in the same variety as the Americans, as sensitive or obtuse, as rustics or academics . . . Westheimer has admirably fulfilled his intention, dramatizing Sherman's utterance that war is hell."  (Paul Theroux for Book World)

Westheimer, David.  Von Ryan's Express (Signet Books, 1970).

A thousand British and American POWs learn to hate the American colonel who singlehandedly shapes them up. His strict discipline brings order to the camp; it also earns him a derisive "von." When Italy surrenders, German guards herd the men into boxcars for shipment to the Reich. Ryan has other ideas. He reckons to take the train to Switzerland, and freedom.

Wheatley, Dennis.  They Used Dark Forces (Arrow Books, Re-issue, 1974).

In June, 1943, Gregory Sallust parachutes into Nazi Germany. His mission is to penetrate the secrets of Hitler's "V" rockets. But before he can reach his objective, he becomes unwillingly involved with Ibrahim Malacou--hypnotist, astrologer and disciple of Satan. It is the beginning of a long and uneasy partnership sustained by a common hatred of the enemy—Hitler.

Wilson, Robert.  The Company of Strangers (Harcourt, 2002).

The stifling summer streets of Lisbon are teeming with spies and informers when Andrea Aspinall, an English mathematician turned spy, disappears under a new identity. Military attaché Karl Voss, experienced in the illusions of intrigue, arrives in Lisbon under the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis so that atomic and rocket technology do not find their way into Hitler's hands.  In the lethal tranquility of a corrupted paradise Andrea and Karl meet and attempt to find love. Tragically, a night of violence leaves Andrea the keeper of a secret that triggers a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world. From Portugal to England and finally Cold War Berlin, she gradually discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments, but by those closest to you.

Wilson, Robert.  A Small Death in Lisbon (Berkley, Reissue edition, 2002).

Winner of the prestigious Gold Dagger Award in the U.K. for the best mystery of 1999, this complex literary thriller may be one of the most satisfying suspense novels to come along in some time. Robert Wilson has written several political thrillers, most of which are set in West Africa, but they are, alas, largely unavailable in the U.S.  In A Small Death in Lisbon, the narrative switches back and forth between 1941 and 1999, and Wilson's wide knowledge of history and keen sense of place make the eras equally vibrant. In 1941 Germany, Klaus Felsen, an industrialist, is approached by the SS high command in a none-too-friendly manner and is "persuaded" to go to Lisbon and oversee the sale--or smuggling--of wolfram (also known as tungsten, used in the manufacture of tanks and airplanes). World War II Portugal is neutral where business is concerned, and too much of the precious metal is being sold to Britain when Germany needs it to insure that Hitler's blitzkrieg is successful.  The reader is treated to a wonderful portrait of Lisbon in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution that ousted Salazar from power, and the scars from that conflict are still close to the surface for the citizens of Lisbon, including Coehlo and his colleagues. We also see World War II in a slightly different manner from that to which we are accustomed—through the eyes of the Germans and the Portuguese. (Amazon.com)

Wharton, William.  A Midnight Clear (New Market Press, New edition, 1996).

A tale of youth and war set in the Ardennes Forest on Christmas Eve, 1944. Ordered close to the German lines to establish an observation post in an abandoned chateau, six GIs play at being soldiers in what seems to be complete isolation. That is, until they meet the enemy.

White, Herman.  Harm’s Way (Signet, Reprint edition, 1997).

A regular Naval officer in the Pacific theater is assigned to command a "backwater" operation to seize a group of strategic islands from the Japanese, and has almost as much trouble from an entrenched and interfering area commander as from the enemy.

Willard, Tom.  Wings of Honor (Forge Books, 2000).

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Augustus Sharps, Jr., of the Sabre Ranch in Arizona, makes his way to Tuskegee, Alabama, where for the first time in history, black men are being trained as combat pilots to fight the war in Europe and the Pacific.Augustus's family has been fighting America's wars since his grandfather rode with Buffalo Soldiers against the Apaches, and since his father fought in Cuba 1898 and in the trenches of the Western Front in World War I, and he is determined to follow their footsteps.Wings of Honor is the poignant and exciting story of a young man battling the odds to fly with the "Red-Tail Angels," the 99th U.S. Pursuit Squadron, and how he added to his family's honor in battles over North Africa, Sicily, and France, in the fury of the Second World War.

Wouk, Herman.  The Cain Mutiny (Back Bay Books, Reprint, 1992).

The novel was awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The Caine Mutiny grew out of Wouk's experiences aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific in World War II. The novel focuses on Willie Keith, a rich New Yorker assigned to the USS Caine, who gradually matures during the course of the book. But the work is best known for its portrayal of the neurotic Captain Queeg, who becomes obsessed with petty infractions at the expense of the safety of ship and crew. Cynical, intellectual Lieutenant Tom Keefer persuades loyal Lieutenant Steve Maryk that Queeg's bizarre behavior is endangering the ship; Maryk reluctantly relieves Queeg of command. Much of the book describes Maryk's court-martial and its aftermath. The unstable Queeg eventually breaks down completely.  (The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature)

Wouk, Herman.  The Winds of War (Little, Brown and Company, 1971).

The story revolves around a mixture of real and fictional characters, all connected in some way to the extended family of Victor "Pug" Henry, a middle-aged Naval Officer and confidant of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The story begins six months before Germany's invasion of Poland, which begins the European portion of the war, and ends shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the United States and, by extension, the Henry family, enters the war as well.

Wouk, Herman.  War and Remembrance (Little, Brown and Company, 1978).

War and Remembrance, published in 1978, is the sequel to The Winds of War. It continues the story of the extended Henry family and the Jastrow family starting on 15 December 1941 and ending on 6 August 1945.

Yamamoto, Hisaye.  Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Rutgers University Press, 2001).

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories bring together fifteen stories that span Hisaye Yamamoto's forty-year career. It was her first book to be published in the United States. Yamamoto's themes include the cultural conflicts between the first generation, the Issei and their children, the Nisei; coping with prejudice; and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.

Young, Sara.  My Enemy’s Cradle (Harcourt, 2008).

Cyrla's neighbors have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Anneke, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for girls carrying German babies. But Anneke's soldier has disappeared, and Lebensborn babies are only ever released to their father's custody—or taken away.  A note is left under the mat. Someone knows that Cyrla, sent from Poland years before for safekeeping with her Dutch relatives, is Jewish. The Nazis are imposing more and more restrictions; she won't be safe there for long.

And then in the space of an afternoon, life falls apart. Cyrla must choose between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking Anneke's place in the Lebensborn-- Cyrla and Anneke are nearly identical. If she takes refuge in the enemy's lair, can Cyrla fool the doctors, nurses, guards, and other mothers-to-be? Can she escape before they discover she is not who she claims?  Mining a lost piece of history, Sara Young takes us deep into the lives of women living in the worst of times. Part love story and part elegy for the terrible choices we must often make to survive, My Enemy's Cradle keens for what we lose in war and sings for the hope we sometimes find.

Takeyama, Michio.  Harp of Burma (Tuttle Publishing Co., 1981).

Near the end of World War II, the Japanese are facing defeat in Burma at the hands of the British Army. After Corporal Mizushima's unit surrenders he attempts to persuade other holdouts also to surrender without a struggle, now that the war is coming to an end. They refuse and in the final battle Mizushima is injured and rescued by a Buddhist monk. Thus begins a spiritual journey for Mizushima which ends with him adopting the robes of a monk and travelling the countryside, cremating and burying the war dead. 

Thackara, James.  America’s Children (Penguin Group, Reissue, 2002).

America's Children is a multi-layered story of Christian and Marxist values; of love of family and land; of invisible high-energy particles and Pentagon technocrats; of thrilling scientific discovery and the unspeakable reality of Hiroshima. The great classical myths of man's mastery over nature suffuse America's Children with a seductive, deathly glow. A novel for our age, America's Children is a sublime and truly American story of the theft of atomic fire, the agonies of political and moral conscience, and the future of our planet in a nuclear world.

Thackara, James.  Book of Kings (Penguin Group, Reissue, 2000).

James Thackara's epic novel The Book of Kings is set across the entire continent of Europe, as well as North and South America and North Africa, in the years shortly before and during World War II and leading up to the present day. The Book of Kings tracks Europe's drift toward Nazism from 1932, when a quartet of students at the Sorbonne - David and Johannes, both German; Justin, a French/Algerian scholarship student; and Duncan, an American with an attachment to "old" Europe - share an apartment on the rue de Fleurus. The Book of Kings sounds the fate of its characters far beyond their commonplace existence as it pursues the enduring questions of absolute evil and man's responsibility. In scenes ranging from the fall of France, the Moscow front, Silesia's camps, the siege of Berlin, and the Amazon rainforests, the design of the novel emerges to reveal civilization strung between its two mortal tendencies, first in the thrall of an irresistible attraction toward cataclysm, then returning from destruction toward redemption.

Thirkell, Angela Mackail.  Miss Bunting (Moyer Bell, 1996).

From the '30s to the '60s, Thirkell wrote a novel a year, most of which were set in an updated version of Trollope's Barsetshire. This installment, originally published in 1945 is a mild and rather obvious comedy of manners set during one summer late in WWII, when traditional order is being brought to an end by the rise of industrial wealth and the damages inflicted by six years of war. The story revolves around a wide group of the upper class--primarily landowners and clergymen--who have dominated this small town, and how they will respond to arrival of a coarse but dynamic industrial tycoon. Miss Bunting is an elderly ex-governess who has been hired by one family to instruct and care for their 17-year-old daughter, Anne. There are numerous characters in the novel, some dashing in and out of the narrative with such speed that the only thing they contribute is the memory of a vaguely humorous name. Some will find the book dated, but for Thirkell's many readers in this country, it will be a welcome addition to the growing library of her work.  (Publisher’s Weekly)

Thoene, Bodie.  The Twilight of Courage (Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1996).

The Twilight of Courage is a retelling of World War II that intertwines the stories of two American journalists' escape from the collapse of Warsaw, with those of an orphaned baby's journey to Jerusalem, a mathematician's attempt to crack Nazi code, and more.

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Dunkirk Crescendo (Zion Covenant Series #7-9) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

This description covers #7 London Refrain, #8 Paris Encore, and #9 Dunkirk Crescendo. These three additions to the Zion Covenant series are "director's cuts." They include portions of the Thoene classic The Twilight of Courage and thrilling, never-before-published scenes with the characters you've come to know and love. Readers will finally know the fates of Jacob and Lori Kalner from Warsaw Requiem and meet for the first time David Meyer from The Zion Chronicles, plus Madame Rose Smith and Jerome Jardin from The Zion Legacy and, most importantly, Rachel and Yacov Lubetkin, the heroes of The Zion Chronicles series. Study questions included. 

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Warsaw Requiem (Zion Covenant Series #6) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

Book 6 of The Zion Covenant series. Heroic efforts are underway to save as many Jewish children as possible while the escalation of brutality portends an international nightmare.

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Danzig Passage (Zion Covenant Series #5) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

This sequel to Jerusalem Interlude focuses on two families during the early years of Hitler's regime. The Ibsen family has helped Jews, and two members of the mafily have been arrested. The Ibsen children are seeking a way to escape the Nazis. Peter Wallich, a Jew, is trying to escape from Berlin with his family.

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Jerusalem Interlude (Zion Covenant Series #4) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

For Jews in prewar Europe, the terrifying truth is uncovered: Truly they have no place to go. Escape or perish, but escape to where? As Central Europe is taken over by the Nazis under celebrated headlines of Peace in Our Times, hundreds of thousands pay the price for Hitler’s international deception. In Jerusalem Interlude, Leah and Shimon Feldstein finally reach the Promised Land. They enter their new life under the shadow of the Western Wall, only to find that a longer, more sinister shadow is casting its darkness over the Holy Land. Will they ever find true peace, a resting place for their spirits? Or will their time in Jerusalem be only a brief interlude in the ongoing struggle for a homeland?

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Munich Signature (Zion Covenant Series #3) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

Book 3 in the compelling Zion Covenant series, the thrilling sequel to Prague Counterpoint. Elisa Murphy holds information that might be a key to stopping Hitler.

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Prague Counterpoint (Zion Covenant Series #2) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

In this sequel to the Vienna Prelude, Elisa Lendheim is caught in the center of violence that sweeps Europe as Hitler's plan to annihilate the Jews unfolds.

Thoene, Bodie and Brock.  Vienna Prelude (Zion Covenant Series #1) (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).

Book 1 in the compelling Zion Covenant series. Her own identity was safely disguised. But what about those she loved most?

Thomas, Evan.  Sea of Thunder (Simon & Schuster, 2006).

Evan Thomas takes us inside the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific in a way that blends the best of military and cultural history and riveting narrative drama. He follows four men throughout: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled samurai who was the commander of all kamikazes and himself the last kamikaze of the war; and Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history. Sea of Thunder climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS Johnston into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy—and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.

Thorpe, Adam.  The Rules of Perspective (Picador, Re-issue, 2007).

On April 3, 1945, the advancing American army shells the historic town of Lohenfelde, and the Kaiser-Wilhelm museum. Within the museum's vaults, Heinrich Hoffer is hiding from the bombardment, and trying to keep a priceless Van Gogh from falling into the hands of a rogue Nazi. After the shelling, an American corporal, Neal Parry, finds a beautiful eighteenth-century oil painting in the rubble, and must confront both its beauty, and the morality of stealing it. The stories of Herr Hoffer, Parry, and their paintings unfold simultaneously in this gripping, brilliantly structured novel about art and war.

Trammell, Jack.  Saints Departed (Hard Shell Word Factory, 2001).

During World War II, occupied Paris was a city filled with people acting contrary to their better natures. The Saints Departed, is a novel of these ordinary/extraordinary people and their supreme moments when regimes could suddenly topple, leaders falter, and the course of war irrevocably change direction. Based on many factual plots and stories, The Saints Departed centers around an ill-fated love affair between an overconfident German agent and a female French Resistance fighter bent on revenge, who find themselves entwined in a massive conspiracy that will end either with Hitler's death and a pre-invasion peace with the Allies, or a persecution of the French people far worse than anything imaginable.