France
The Lacemaker and the Princess
Child fiction book. In 1788, eleven-year-old Isabelle, living with her lacemaker grandmother and mother near the palace of Versailles, becomes close friends with Marie Antoinette's daughter, Princess Therese, and finds their relationship complicated not only by their different social class but by the growing political unrest and resentment of the French people. Grade 5+
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Sky Chasers
Child fiction book. The race is on to be the first to discover the secret of flight! Magpie is soon caught up in a world of science, spies, and unruly animals to be the first to passenger in a hot air balloon. Grade: 4+
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The Inquisitor's Tale, or the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. A peasant girl, her holy greyhound, an oblate (a person dedicated to God) on a mission from his monastery, and a young Jewish boy travel across medieval France to escape persecution and save holy texts from being burned. Grade: 5+
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Genevieve's War
Child fiction book. In August 1939 Genevieve makes an impulsive decision not to get on the train that would have taken her to the boat back to New York. Consequently, she must spend the duration of World War II with her grandmother in a small village in Alsace, France, where she becomes involved with the French resistance. Grade: 3+
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Eleanor : Crown Jewel of Aquitaine
Child fiction book. The diary of Eleanor, first daughter of the duke of Aquitaine, from 1136 until 1137, when at age fifteen she becomes queen of France. Includes historical notes on her later life. Part of The Royal Diaries series. Grade 4+
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The Tin Snail
Child fiction book. A thirteen-year-old French boy tries to save his father's job by inventing a special kind of car, but it isn't easy--especially when the Nazis are planning to steal his design! Grade: 5+
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The Day the World Stopped Turning
Child fiction book. In the unique landscape of the Camargue in the South of France during WW2, a young autistic boy lives on his parents' farm among the salt flats and the flamingos that live there. There are lots of things he doesn't understand, but he does know how to heal animals. He loves routine and music too; every week he goes to market with his mother, to ride his special horse on the town carousel. But then the Germans come, with their guns, and take the town. A soldier shoots a flamingo from the sky and it falls to earth terribly injured. And even worse is to come: the carousel is damaged, the horses broken. For this vulnerable boy, everything is falling apart. Only there's a kind sergeant among the Germans -- a man with a young boy of his own at home, a man who trained as a carpenter. Between them, perhaps boy and man can mend what has been broken -- and maybe even the whole town. Grade: 3+
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Waiting for Anya
Child fiction book. Jo places his life in danger when he helps protect a growing number of Jewish children who have sought refuge at a reclusive widow's farm. Grade: 5+
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret : A Novel in Words and Pictures
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on CD and e-audiobook. When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized. Grade 4+
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A Coming Evil
Child fiction book. During the German occupation of France in 1940, thirteen-year-old Lisette meets a ghost while living with her aunt who harbors Jewish and Gypsy children in the French countryside. Grade 5+
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Russia
Saving Zasha
Child ficton book, and e-book. The Second World War has just ended when Mikhail finds a dying man and his German shepherd, Zasha, in the woods. It's dangerous, some say traitorous, to own a German dog after the war, so Mikhail must keep Zasha a secret to keep her alive. But how long can he get away with it? Grade 5+
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Catherine : The Great Journey
Child fiction. A fictional diary of Princess Sophie, later named Catherine, from 1743 until 1745, when at age fifteen she is married to her second cousin Peter, Grand Duke of Russia, who will one day be Emperor. Includes historical notes on her later life. Part of the Royal Diaries series. Grade: 4+
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Dancing at the Odinochka
Child fiction book. In the 1860s, Erinia Pavaloff's life at a trading post in Russian America gets more complicated when the region is annexed to the United States and members of the small community become American Alaskans. Inspired by the 5-page memoir written by the real Erinia Pavaloff in 1936. Grade: 4+
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Broken Song
Child fiction book, and e-book. In 1897, fifteen-year-old Reuven Bloom, a Russian Jew, must set aside his dreams of playing the violin in order to save himself and his baby sister after the rest of their family is murdered. Grade: 5+
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Angel on the Square
Child audiobook on CD. In 1913 Russia, twelve-year-old Katya eagerly anticipates leaving her St. Petersburg home, though not her older cousin Misha, to join her mother, a lady in waiting in the household of Tsar Nicholas II, but the ensuing years bring world war, revolution, and undreamed of changes to her life. Book 1 in the Saint Petersburg series. Grade: 5+
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Burying the Sun
Child fiction book. In Leningrad in 1941, when Russia and Germany are at war, fourteen-year-old Georgi vows to help his family and his city during the terrible siege. Book 3 in the Saint Petersburg series. Grade: 5+
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The Impossible Journey
Child fiction book. In 1934, thirteen-year-old Marya and her younger brother, Georgi, set out alone on a long and arduous journey into Siberia to find their mother after she and their father are exiled for opposing Stalin. Book 2 in the Saint Petersburg series. Grade: 5+
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Breaking Stalin's Nose
Child fiction book. In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, ten-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs. Grade: 5+
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Spain
Freedom Beyond the Sea
Child fiction book. To escape the Inquisition, Esther Marchadi, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a murdered Jewish rabbi, disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of Christopher Columbus's "Santa Maria." Grade: 6+
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Isabel, Jewel of Castilla
Child fiction book. While waiting anxiously for others to choose a husband for her, Isabella, the future Queen of Spain, keeps a diary account of her life as a member of the royal family. Part of the Royal Diaries series. Grade: 5+
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Germany
Escape to West Berlin
Child fiction book. In 1961 East Berlin, thirteen-year-old Heidi copes with the stress of a crisis with her best friend, government pressure on her father to leave his West Berlin job, her mother's pregnancy, and the ever-present threat of the closing of the border with West Berlin. Grade: 5+
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The Star of Kazan
Child fiction book. After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany. Grade: 5+
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Journey to America
Child fiction book. A Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 endures innumerable separations before they are once again united. Grade: 5+
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Conspiracy
Child fiction book. Berlin, November 1943. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly happy life with their parents even though WWII rages on. Then one night, their neighborhood is hit by bombs and a mortally wounded man comes to their house, asking for Gerta and Max's father. Before the man dies, he hands over a packet of bloodstained documents and says, "For the sake of humanity, the Fuhrer must die!" And the children find themselves caught up in a fight between good and evil. Book 1 of The Plot to Kill Hitler trilogy. Grade: 4+
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An Elephant in the Garden
Child fiction book. 1944. Elizabeth's mother works at Dresden Zoo, where her favorite animal is an elephant named Marlene. When the zoo director tells her the dangerous animals must be shot to prevent them running amok when the town is bombed, Elizabeth's mother moves Marlene into the back garden to save her. And then the bombs start to fall... Grade: 4+
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Making Bombs for Hitler
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. In 1943 ten-year-old Lida is torn away from her home in the Ukraine, separated from her little sister Larissa, and sent to a slave labor camp in Germany, but when she is moved and set to making bombs she sees a way to strike back at the Nazis. Grade: 5+
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My Brother’s Secret
Child fiction book. In 1941 twelve-year-old Karl is proud to be a member of the Hitler Youth, but when his father is killed on the Eastern Front everything changes--his family moves to the country to live with his grandparents, he encounters a brutal Gestapo officer, and he begins to realize that his sixteen-year-old brother has joined a youth group who opposes the Nazis. Grade: 4+
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After the Train
Child fiction book. Ten years after the end of the Second World War, the town of Rolfen, West Germany, looks just as peaceful and beautiful as ever, until young Peter Liebig discovers a secret about his past that leads him to question everything, including the town's calm façade and his own sense of comfort and belonging. Grade: 5+
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China
Bronze and Sunflower
Child fiction book, and e-book. Sunflower is an only child, and when her father is sent to the rural Cadre School, she has to go with him. When her father tragically drowns, Sunflower is taken in by the poorest family in the village, a family with a son named Bronze. Bronze and Sunflower become inseparable, understanding each other as only the closest friends can. Translated from Mandarin, this is a timeless story of the trials of poverty and the power of love and loyalty to overcome hardship. Includes historical note. Grade: 4+
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Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
Child fiction book. In the 1920's, a Chinese youth from the country comes to Chungking with his mother where the bustling city offers adventure and his apprenticeship to a coppersmith brings good fortune. Grade: 5+
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Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society
Child fiction book. During the Japanese occupation of parts of China, twelve-year-old Ye Xian is thrown out of her father's and stepmother's home, joins a martial arts group, and tries to help her aunt and the Americans in their struggle against the Japanese invaders. Includes historical notes. Grade: 5+
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The Kite Rider
Child fiction book, and audiobook on Playaway. In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. Grade: 6+
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Under the Broken Sky
Child fiction book. When Soviet troops invade Japanese-occupied Manchuria during the last days of World War II, twelve-year-old Natsu Kimura must care for her younger sister as they struggle to survive and return to Japan. Grade: 5+
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Lady of Chʻiao Kuo : Warrior of the South
Child fiction book. In 531 A.D., a fifteen-year-old princess of the Hsien tribe in southern China keeps a diary which describes her role as liaison between her own people and the local Chinese colonists, in times of both peace and war. Part of the Royal Diaries series. Grade: 5+
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Spring Pearl : The Last Flower
Child fiction book. Called boyish by her new family for being able to read and write, twelve-year-old orphaned Spring Pearl's "odd ways" help save the family during the 1857 Opium War in Canton, China. Grade: 4+
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Korea
Sŏndŏk, Princess of the Moon and Stars
Child fiction book. In a series of messages placed in her grandmother's ancestral jar, a seventh century princess and future ruler of the Korean kingdom of Silla vents her frustration at not being permitted to study astronomy because she is a girl. Part of the Royal Diaries series. Grade: 4+
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Brother's Keeper
Child fiction book. Twelve-year-old Sora and her eight-year-old brother, Youngsoo, must try to escape North Korea's oppressive Communist regime on their own in 1950. Includes historical notes, photographs of the author's mother, glossary of Korean words, and timeline. Grade 4+
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A Single Shard
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself. Grade: 5+
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The Kite Fighters
Child fiction book, and audiobook on CD. In Korea in 1473, eleven-year-old Young-sup overcomes his rivalry with his older brother Kee-sup, who as the first-born son receives special treatment from their father, and combines his kite-flying skill with Kee-sup's kite-making skill in an attempt to win the New Year kite-fighting competition. Grade: 4+
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When My Name Was Keoko
Child fiction book. With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely. Grade: 5+
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