Historical fiction for kids

October 24, 2010 8:47 PM

My daughter's birthday is coming up, and I'm looking for book recs. Lately, she's fascinated by time travel and, to a lesser extent, World War II. I'd love to buy her some books about these subjects, but am sort of stuck on what, exactly, to buy.

She's turning eight, and is reading at slightly above grade level--books aimed at the 8-10 crowd will generally be okay, though she still shies away from the ones that look too hard.

She's a bit of a fragile flower, so for WWII, I'd prefer books that are (1) fiction, and (2) do not mention gas chambers. (Concentration camps are okay, so long as it doesn't get graphic.) Her interest seems to mostly be what happened to children who lived in affected areas--the kids who were sent out of London during the Blitz, for example, prompted a good forty minutes of discussion last night. The only thing that I've come up with in this category is Primrose Day by Caroline Haywood, and that's based on my memories of reading it as a child, which may not be accurate. Surely there are others, right?

For time travel, we're open to just about anything, but would prefer things with strong female characters. Something close to historical accuracy in the time travel would be nice, as well. (Not, obviously, that all time travel is in the past, or that I'm only looking for historical time travel--traveling to the future is good, too!)

Books that she's reading include the Junie B. Jones books, Franny K. Stein books, Clarice Bean, and the Weird School series. She's reading all of these--with the occasional exception of Clarice Bean--fluently, even on her first read, so I'm not too worried about a slight increase in reading level.

Stuff that's still a little too advanced includes things like Ella Enchanted, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and Harry Potter.

Also, we're more than happy to read more advanced stuff to her (so, you know, if you have the best suggestion ever, have at it,) but she prefers to read on her own and then talk about the books, thus the search to find things on her current reading level.

posted by MeghanC to Media & Arts (46 answers total)

A Wrinkle in Time was the first thing that came to mind. I loved it when I was around that age, and I believe one of the main characters is a girl
posted by alligatorman at 8:52 PM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

How about Diana Wynne Jones' A Tale of Time City? It features WWII evacuees and time travel!
posted by redfoxtail at 8:53 PM on October 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

At her age, I read The Invisible Thread by Yoshiko Uchida, though that may be a little too difficult. Twenty and Ten, which is about a Catholic school hiding Jewish children in France, is geared to about that age group. Number the Stars is also a good option.

When she gets a little older and you're ready to introduce more intense Holocaust things, The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, is an amazing book about a girl who travels back in time and ends up in a shtetl in Poland. There are definitely gas chambers, though. I think I read it when I was 10 or 11.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:55 PM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I thoroughly enjoyed Blitzcat when I was a kid.

Harry Turtledove, "the master of alternate history," has a YA series of alternate histories called Crosstime Traffic that features teens. Gunpowder Empire is about two modern-day kids stuck in a Roman analogue during a siege.

I was assigned Summer of my German Soldier when I was 9 in school. I also enjoyed My Brother Sam Is Dead, although that has some pretty graphic violence.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:57 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

At around that kind of age, I read a book called The Machine Gunners a few times - about a bunch of kids (sent to the country from London, I think?) who find a shot-down German plane & set up a kind of home defence cubby house / bunker thing, complete with the machine gun from the plane.

Features a dead German pilot, briefly, but otherwise nothing particularly squicky that I can remember. Seems to have won some sort of award, and was on my school library's recommended reading list.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:57 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hmm. For WWII, what about some fictional diaries from girls what would have been her age during the time? There's a great set of books called the Dear America series that I specifically remember getting for Christmas when I was 9. Some of the ones about WWII are:

# Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 by Barry Denenberg (2001)
# One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 by Barry Denenberg (2000)
# My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941 by Mary Pope Osborne (2000)

I'd guess that I've read the second two of these, but I'm not sure.

For time travel, what about the classic, A Wrinkle in Time? I also like a book called Singularity by William Sleator, but that may or may not fit what you're looking for.

Good luck!
posted by Night_owl at 8:58 PM on October 24, 2010

selected by judges of the Carnegie Medal as one of the ten most important children's novels of the past 70 years.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:59 PM on October 24, 2010

Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham is a good read. "A US-led task force off Indonesia in 2021 finds itself sent back to 1942, just prior to the Battle of Midway. The novels deal with a rapidly altered version of World War II, and to a lesser extent the social changes that result amongst the Allied powers."
posted by Bubbles Devere at 9:05 PM on October 24, 2010

For WWII:

Thirteen Never Changes by Budge Wilson
Escape from Warsaw by Ian Serraillier

...And, if you can find a copy, Touch Wood by Renee Roth-Hano is an amazing book that is basically an autobiography of a French Jewish woman who'd been hidden from the Nazis as a child. Really stellar book.
posted by shamash at 9:07 PM on October 24, 2010

(I should note that Touch Wood is mostly non-fiction, but it's written like a novel. No gas chambers involved.)
posted by shamash at 9:08 PM on October 24, 2010

The Power of Un is a great time travel book for kids.
posted by moonroof at 9:11 PM on October 24, 2010

Response by poster: Awesome, you guys--thanks! Please keep them coming, as we're all about buying ridiculous numbers of books for both birthday and winter holidays.

Addressing a few specific suggestions, mostly to help guide future suggestions:

I desperately love A Wrinkle in Time, but it's definitely too mature for her right now. The dimensions, the relationships, and the language are just too much. (And believe me, I tried. She didn't even want me reading it to her.)

A Tale of Time City is on my read-to-her list--I've not read it yet, but what I saw from Amazon's look inside feature seemed like it would probably be just above what she's able to read on her own. I might put a copy of that in the stack and see what she does with it, then use that to gauge the winter-holiday-books buying.

So far, I think that The Machine Gunners, the Dear America books, and Twenty and Ten are closest to her reading level.
posted by MeghanC at 9:12 PM on October 24, 2010

Don't know about age/ability level, but Goodnight Mr. Tom is a book that I loved as a kid and still enjoy now. I think it's one you could read to her as well. It's about a young boy from London who is sent to live in a small town in the countryside during WWII in order to avoid the bombing of the city. There are some fairly gritty scenes now that I think about it, but I really do feel I first read it when I was about 8.

Michelle Magorian wrote a lot of similar books about events during WWII, though the other ones are a bit harder to find.

Really, though, I can't recommend Goodnight Mr. Tom more highly.
posted by slide at 9:15 PM on October 24, 2010

I suggest: Snow Treasure, Dear America Books (it looks like the one about WWII is Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, and the American Girl books (Molly is the WWII doll). For ages 9-12 there is Running out of Time.
posted by oceano at 9:20 PM on October 24, 2010

I love YA threads. Collidescope has a young female protagonist and involves time travel.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:22 PM on October 24, 2010

Flossie's Diary about WWII, and Archie's War about WWI, both by Marcia Williams. My 11 and 9 year old sons like both these scrapbook-style books. There is a lot to see and read in here. They are full of lovely illustrations, and the writing is presented in text, postcards and letters throughout the books.
posted by coevals at 9:23 PM on October 24, 2010

I was about your daughter's age when I saw the move The Final Countdown for the first time on HBO or Cinemax, I cannot even remember. As a World War II buff, and a nascent sci-fi buff, this movie seemed tailor-made to my needs. Perhaps she may enjoy it as well.
posted by msali at 9:23 PM on October 24, 2010

Ooh! I recently read When You Reach Me. It won the Newbery Medal this year, is about time travel, has many references to A Wrinkle in Time (pair them as a double present?), and is a wonderful book.

For WWII, she might enjoy When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which is semi-autobiographical.

For a story about children living in Leningrad while it was under siege, there's Boris by Jaap ter Haar. (NB there are no gas chambers, but people do die of starvation).

A couple of other books I remember reading when I was a kid about children being evacuated from the Blitz are: Carrie's War by Nina Bawden, and When the Sirens Wailed by Noel Streatfeild. Those might be ones to get from the library, as they're older and possibly out of print.
posted by mogget at 9:23 PM on October 24, 2010

I remember loving the book Greater Than Angels by Carol Matas around that age, not sure if its too old though.


posted by devonia at 9:24 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Tom's Midnight Garden is about time travel. A fantastic piece of literature.
posted by smoke at 9:32 PM on October 24, 2010

Seconding Number the Stars and Summer of My German Soldier, though I remember reading that around 8-9 and not really getting what the big deal was with the crush on the German POW. A narrative thrust consisting of "But This Boy Was SO CUTE!" was sort of beyond me at that point.

There's also Snow Treasure, about a boy in Nazi occupied Norway, which I remember liking around that age.

The Endless Steppe isn't about the war per se, but it's about a young girl who is deported with her family to Siberia around that same time period (1930's or 40s?).

I also remember two other historical fiction YA novels about girls in World War II that I loved as a young girl, both of which are ripe for one of those "Help Me Remember This Book" posts.

One is about a preteen/younger teenage girl who is Jewish in the Netherlands around the time the Germans invade (not unlike Anne Frank, though this book is not about her). She and her parents are deported, and the novel follows her and her family through the concentration camps. It never really gets that graphic, and none of the primary characters ends up in a gas chamber or anything like that. The book ends with the protagonist, who is now an older teenager, being liberated from the camps and deciding to emigrate to Israel.

The second one is also about a preteen/young teen girl who is Jewish during the war, but they're in the USA. The family moves to the US to escape Hitler in the 30's. The book begins in the Depression, with the family trying to make ends meet in New York. At some point, they cut their losses and move to Los Angeles. The book follows the whole family through the war. I remember a mother working tirelessly at cleaning and dish-washing jobs, a father who is constantly coming up with get-rich-quick schemes, and that the main character is the middle sister in a family with three girls. At some point in the war they volunteer at the USO.

Any help?

Luckily for the OP, extensive digging on Amazon isn't helping because there are just so many young adult historical fiction novels about kids growing up during WW2.
posted by Sara C. at 9:39 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Connie Willis two volume meganovel Blackout/All Clear fits nearly all your criteria (WWII and Time Travel, strong female characters, well-researched) but it is probably a bit above her level and would be quite onerous to read aloud because of its length. They are available in audiobook, though. I've just started All Clear, and although they're adult novels, I don't think there would be anything objectionable in them for a kid. No sex, and because it's centered on the London Blitz, there is only one very brief (one sentence) mention of concentration camps, at least so far.
posted by Shoeburyness at 10:13 PM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Shoeburyness, Blackout/All Clear is what started this! My partner and I love Connie Willis, and supper conversation about what we were reading sparked her interest in both themes.

Sadly, the Willis is way, way above her level--not thematically, but the nonlinear storylines, multiple names, and sheer length of it is well beyond her. We're not even looking for YA here, we're looking for middle grade, and fairly easy middle grade at that.
posted by MeghanC at 10:28 PM on October 24, 2010

Nthing the Machine Gunners.
posted by greycap at 10:28 PM on October 24, 2010

You might try Alan and Naomi. I remember being very affected by it, but not enough to recall all the plot details 20+ years later. If you aren't familiar with it, maybe you could read through it first to make sure the details are not too graphic? It has a haunting ending, but I don't think the ending in itself is too much for a mature eight-year-old.
posted by peep at 10:33 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think most of the suggestions here are way too advanced, based on what the OP says her daughter is reading now.

What about Noel Streatfeild's Shoes books? A couple of them are set during and right after World War II. I would read Ballet Shoes first, which is set before the war, but after that she could read Theatre Shoes, which is set during World War II. (The characters in Ballet Shoes make a guest appearance in Theatre Shoes.)
posted by craichead at 10:33 PM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh man, when you said time travel and World War II, my mind jumped immediately to Edward Bloor's London Calling, but that's another one that I expect is probably above your daughter's level at the moment. Maybe one to keep in mind for later?

As for middle-grade time travel, I enjoyed Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander.
posted by sigmagalator at 10:39 PM on October 24, 2010

My fourth grade teacher read us The Island on Bird Street, and I never forgot it.
posted by hermitosis at 10:44 PM on October 24, 2010

Best answer: A couple ideas.... Time Warp Trio books by John Scieszka are a hoot, and the well-known Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. ( The Magic Treehouse may already be beneath her level though? And the later books get less historical and devolve into cheesy magic adventures.)

I remember reading over and over again, at around her age, a cheesy adaptation of "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" that involved an astronaut in medieval times. Haven't thought of it in ages, but... Amazon comes through! The Spaceman and King Arthur, a novelization of the forgettable Disney movie "Unidentified Flying Oddball".

(You might also consider getting her a time travel themed t-shirt from Echo Park Time Travel Mart's online store. Sadly, their books don't appear to be time-travel related. [Was going to plug Connie Willis, too, but on preview I see it has been addressed.])

Turning to war....
I also read, at about her age, The Battle of Midway by Ira Peck until it fell apart. That one had me drawing elaborate aircraft carrier battle scenes for months. My bloody imagination also loved books that I can't find now about Pearl Harbor and D-Day, but you might prefer stories from the British home front if you're trying not to dive right into the horrors of war. Lessee.... the Dunkirk rescue is a fascinating story, but harder to find kid's books for. There's a beautifully illustrated picture book called The Little Ships by Louise Borden that would be an easy read but tells the story nicely.

I haven't read these books about growing up in England during WW2, but they look age-appropriate and fun, which is a little bit rare. And the UK series "My Story" has a lot of titles on WW2 that might make decent read-aloud - again, I haven't read these books; in this case, I'm also a bit put-off by their gender segregation. But it follows her interests - the boys' books are about the actual fighting, while the girls' books are more about the home experience during the war. So maybe they're worth finding anyway?

Another tangent.... How are you fixed for relatives? My kids were studying the 40's, 50's and 60's recently, and we asked their grandparents for memories. Got back my dad's thoughts on car culture, my mom's memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, my father-in-law's memories of being stationed at a forward fire base in Viet Nam. Also my late grandfather's diary entries from the WW2 era. Fascinating stuff, and we would never have heard any of those stories if we hadn't asked for 'em. If you're very lucky, you might have a surviving WW2 veteran relative, or acquaintance, or a deceased family diarist who would be willing to tell her the kid versions of some of their experiences. Even if that's not the case, her grandparents probably have some great stories to tell, which are a sort of time travel in their own way.
posted by richyoung at 10:46 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I second the Willis Blackout rec. I'll add the Montmaray books by Michelle Cooper, A Brief History of Montmaray and the forthcoming The FitzOsbornes in Exile, which are lovely teen historical fiction set at the brink of World War I. They're heavily inspired by and homages to I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which I also recommend.
posted by nicebookrack at 11:12 PM on October 24, 2010

Came into this thread to recommend another book by Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog, concerning two time travelers (one male and one female) who leap back in time to a Wodehouseian Victorian England in search of an artifact that would later be destroyed during WWII, and in the process wind up reintroducing the extinct cat to the 22nd century.

Now that I've read the thread, it's probably a few years too advanced, but definitely keep it in mind for a few years from now -- it's a great introduction to Willis.

How about The Giver? Not time-travel per se, and not WWII per se, but a story in which a young hero from the future magically learns about his society's totalitarian past.
posted by foursentences at 11:21 PM on October 24, 2010

When I was her age or a little older, I loved Penelope Farmer's Charlotte Sometimes which is about a young English girl who goes to boarding school and picks the one bed different from the others, with round brass knobs. Sleeping in it, she finds herself sometimes trading places with another girl who looks just like her and who has the same bed but is living during World War I ( or maybe right afterwards). This was one of my favorite books!
posted by sumiami at 11:41 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I remember liking WWII novel with young female protagonist From Anna enough to sort of accidentally steal it from an elementary school classroom.
posted by doift at 11:56 PM on October 24, 2010

Also, one of the books in Edward Eager's Tales of Magic series is about time travel, in a very fanciful 1950s kind of way. The whole series is great. Half Magic (not the one about time travel) was one of my favorite books at that age.
posted by doift at 12:08 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

I remember liking the Guests of War trilogy, about a young girl and her brother who are sent from England to Canada during WWII to escape the bombing. I was surprised to see Amazon listing the books for ages 4-8; when I read them, they were published in separate volumes and I thought I was 8 or 9.
posted by sparrow89 at 2:17 AM on October 25, 2010

I read The Guests of War trilogy when I was in grade 4. Made up of The Sky is Falling, Looking At the Moon, and The Lights Go On again, the books are about two kids from London who are evacuated out to Canada during the Blitz. Kit Pearson also wrote A Handful of Time about a girl travelling back in time to

Have you considered The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe? It might be a good time to start her on The Chronicles of Narnia, since she's already interested in WWII and time travel.

I definitely also recommend The Time Warp Trio., From Anna, and Tom's Midnight Garden, the latter of which might need a few years before she's ready to read it on her own.

This is a fairly exhaustive list of books about time travel. Off that list, I can vouch for Time Cat and Time Ghost as books I enjoyed around Grade 5.

Finally, I also thought of The Egypt Game. It's definitely one you'll have to guide her through because there are parts that might be a bit scary, but I loved it around that age and I think it's a book teachers often use around grade 4 or 5 to accompany an ancient history unit.
posted by dustyasymptotes at 2:25 AM on October 25, 2010

Hey...just chiming in as the friend of a Young Adult librarian that this is something your Local Friendly YA or Children's Librarian can help you with! A good librarian will have more suggestions than you know what to do with, and it will be based on what you say your daughter is reading. There may be new books the general populace hasn't heard of yet, and there may be older books the general populace hasn't heard of yet.

While it doesn't feature time travel, the Molly series in the American Girl line is all about a girl growing up without her father in WWII era America. I thoroughly enjoyed that more than any AG other series when I was in second - fourth grade.

I can certainly ask my YA librarian friend for her suggestions and come back to this thread later today if I can reach her. In the meantime, try giving yours a call or plan a visit sometime this week!
posted by zizzle at 3:19 AM on October 25, 2010

I agree many of the above suggestions are above her level because you specified she is reading at an 8-10 level but by listing the books that are too hard like J K Rowling and the amazing Carol Levine (which are about an 8 year old's level) and listing her currently reading Junie B Jones which is aimed at 6 year old girls, some commentators are confused (including me!).

At an eight-ten level is Dear Canada, similar to the Dear America series but much better written (all the authors have multiple children's books under their belt and many have won awards) but without the annoying merchandising. I suspect you will have to read them to her despite the large type but they are really enjoyable for adults too. The girls in the diary are twelve. A good metric for what age a children's novel is meant to be read is usually two years younger than the protagonist. But there are lots of exceptions so it is by no means a hard and fast rule.
posted by saucysault at 4:02 AM on October 25, 2010

I know you specifically asked about books, but if you're not averse to TV, Doctor Who has a great two-part story set in World War II - The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances. It's the perfect mix of time travel, historical setting, and well suited for an 8 year old.
posted by afx237vi at 6:02 AM on October 25, 2010

This is not time travel or WWII related, but one of my favorite books written for children is Secret Letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstern. I didn't read it until I was an adult, but it is my go to recommendation for smart 8 year old girls.
posted by aspiring polymath at 6:49 AM on October 25, 2010

A couple books that I remember reading and liking when I was a kid.

Searching for Shona is a book about an 11-year old girl who is being sent away from Edinburgh during WWII. She's supposed to go to Canada, and another girl who looks a lot like her is going to the Scottish countryside. They come up with the idea of switching places, with interesting results.

From Anna is about a German girl whose family moves to Canada in 1933. I remember being fascinated by the description of fascist Germany and the immigrant experience from a kid's perspective.
posted by creepygirl at 6:54 AM on October 25, 2010

I came in to recommend Turtledove's "Crosstime Traffic", but I see I've been beaten to it.

Unfortunately, while Turtledove has written a lot of WWII-based SF/fantasy, and he's written a lot of time travel stories, and he's written a lot of young adult fiction, there doesn't seem to be an intersection of all three yet. The closest is probably "Curious Notions", a Crosstime Traffic book set in an alternate universe where Germany won World War One.
posted by roystgnr at 9:56 AM on October 25, 2010

Oh, I loved so many of these books as a child! Nthing Edward Eager and Noel Streatfeild (note spelling) as good recs for your girl.

The Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis is a fabulous little story (set between the wars) about 4 siblings who find a model ship. They ask it to take them to various times/places, it expands to hold the 4 of them, and they fly off to visit Ancient Egypt, Norman England, and more.

For a modern take on Edward Eager, try a couple by Laurel Snyder -- Any Which Wall or Penny Dreadful.
posted by mdiskin at 9:16 PM on October 25, 2010

Popular Australian children's novel Playing Beatie Bow.
posted by Coaticass at 10:49 PM on October 25, 2010

I just remembered Yoshiko Uchida, who wrote several books about the internment of Japanese-Americans from a kid's perspective:

The Bracelet
Journey to Topaz
Journey Home
posted by creepygirl at 7:00 AM on October 26, 2010

Doctor Who has a great two-part story set in World War II - The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances.

These are great episodes, but they're also scary. Make sure you watch them before you give them to a child - they kept me up at night!
posted by you're a kitty! at 8:30 PM on November 1, 2010 [1 favorite]