World War 2 middle grade fiction to look for
Summer vacation is so awesome. House projects. Lunches with friends. No alarm clock. AND uninterrupted time to read! I'm finally dusting off the TBR pile and wow, are there some great ones in here.
I love historical fiction and this new one is terrific. It's called The Taste of Rain by Monique Polak. It's about a group of girls who are Girl Guides (like American Girl Scouts). The story starts and you might start thinking this is just an ordinary group of girls in a boarding school somewhere with their relentlessly cheerful teacher. Except they aren't just anywhere, they are in Weishen which was a prison camp in Japan during World War 2. The kids are being held there because their boarding school was taken over by the Japanese as headquarters. The kids' parents were missionaries or had other jobs and after 2 1/2 years, they don't know where their parents are or whether they'll ever see them again. Their teacher, Miss E remains positive in spite of starvation and thirst, torture and imprisonment. She continues to offer lessons and has high expectations that the girls will behave appropriately and be kind to each other. This is a fast paced, compelling story based on email interviews with one lady who actually survived the prison at Weishen, as well as other primary sources of information about the prison camp experience. Kids are going to like reading about experiences from World War 2 that aren't European based and teachers will be thrilled to find more resources for their World War 2 units. I thought this one was great. It comes out in September 2019 so be sure to look for it!
I love historical fiction and this new one is terrific. It's called The Taste of Rain by Monique Polak. It's about a group of girls who are Girl Guides (like American Girl Scouts). The story starts and you might start thinking this is just an ordinary group of girls in a boarding school somewhere with their relentlessly cheerful teacher. Except they aren't just anywhere, they are in Weishen which was a prison camp in Japan during World War 2. The kids are being held there because their boarding school was taken over by the Japanese as headquarters. The kids' parents were missionaries or had other jobs and after 2 1/2 years, they don't know where their parents are or whether they'll ever see them again. Their teacher, Miss E remains positive in spite of starvation and thirst, torture and imprisonment. She continues to offer lessons and has high expectations that the girls will behave appropriately and be kind to each other. This is a fast paced, compelling story based on email interviews with one lady who actually survived the prison at Weishen, as well as other primary sources of information about the prison camp experience. Kids are going to like reading about experiences from World War 2 that aren't European based and teachers will be thrilled to find more resources for their World War 2 units. I thought this one was great. It comes out in September 2019 so be sure to look for it!
This second one came out last year and I don't know how I missed blogging about it, because I thought it was great. It's called "Lifeboat 12" by Susan Hood. It's about 13 year old Ken, who is living with his dad, stepmom, and step sister in London. Ken gets selected to emigrate to Canada and at first he's angry for being sent away, but when he gets on the boat, it's more fun and so much nicer than it was at home, that it starts to feel like a big upgrade. Then the boat gets torpedoed. This is a really exciting story with lots of interesting details and historical information. Like "Taste of Rain", this is a story about World War 2 from a really different perspective than I've typically read about. I think the kids are going to enjoy the adventure part as well as the fact that the story is based on real people. So look for this one too!
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