Reviews by Tag: world war II

Teen Review

The Librarian of Auschwitz

By Antonio Iturbe

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Mar 23, 2018

This book is based on the incredible true story of the Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus. She was taken from the Terrezin ghetto in Prague, and she is adjusting to life in the Nazi camp with her mother and father. And when the Jewish leader Fredy Hirsch asks her to protect the 8 precious books prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. This is the story of how she became the librarian of Auschwitz. This girl risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust despite constant danger every day.

Teen Review

Projekt 1065

By Alan Gratz

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Apr 13, 2017

Michael O'Shaunessey, like all his other classmates, is part of the Hitler Youth. He participates in their book burnings and horrific games, but he secretly despises everything the Nazis stand stand for. He has a dangerous secret that he must protect at all costs, he and his parents are spies. He is just playing the part so he can get insider information. Soon he hears about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission that he has to stop. But to do that he must prove his loyalty to the Third Reich no matter the cost...

Teen Review

The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Feb 12, 2016

At the funeral of her brother, Liesel steals her first book. When she arrives at her foster home, freshly separated from her mother, she is terrified. But she does not expect the incredible kindness shown by her eccentric accordion foster father and begrudging love by her foster mother. With their help, she slowly learns to read, and shares the books she steals from book burnings and the mayor’s library to her terrified neighbors during bombing raids, as well as to the Jewish man hiding in her basement.

Teen Review

Tamar

By Mal Peet

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Feb 9, 2016

When Tamar’s grandfather dies, she finds out he left her a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. These lead her to discover another Tamar from the past, a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Holland a century before. His story is one of passionate love, betrayal, jealousy, and tragedy against the backdrop of the daily fear during the second World War, and unraveling it is about to change her life forever.

I thought this was a very well written book. I enjoyed it because it is about a side of World War II that I haven't often read about-the Dutch resistance efforts.

Staff Review

Vango

By Timothée de Fombelle
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Nov 16, 2015

Vango is a thrilling adventure mystery set in Europe on the cusp of the second World War, focused on the mysterious identity of a young man on the cusp of adulthood. Not even Vango, said young man, knows the mystery of his origins, and no one believes he is constantly watched and hunted by shadowy figures. They consider him paranoid. Talented, pleasant, and promising, but strangely paranoid.

Staff Review

The Only Thing to Fear

By Caroline Tung Richmond
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Mar 26, 2015

Eighty years after German super-soldiers crushed the Allied forces in World War II, Zara works as a maid at a Nazi cadet academy in the Easter American Territories. Zara can't escape the Nazi's constant obsession with the Aryan ideal, with a Japanese father and American mother she doesn't fit in with the occupying forces. Although she can't hide her lineage she can hide another genetic gift from her father, the ability to control wind. If the Fuhrer knew about her ability, she would be eradicated. 

Staff Review

The Family Romanov

By Candace Flemming

Rated by Kate M.
Sep 23, 2014

The beginning of the end of Romanov rule of Russia began with the ascension of Nicholas II. Ill prepared for the crown by his father, Nicholas depended heavily on his new wife Alexandra (married under the shadow of the death of Nicholas’ father their marriage was seen as a curse by the Russian people). Problems for the Romanovs multiplied when Alexandra, after several difficult pregnancies, produced only female heirs leaving the line of succession unsure.

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