All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

An alternative to the epic, sweeping historical World War II sagas, this award-winning literary novel makes history much smaller and very personal - as seen through the perspective of a blind French girl and an orphaned German boy.

When you understand that no one is completely good and no one is completely bad - that life is much more nuanced and impacted by perspective - it's easier to see that WWII wasn't simply the Evil Nazis versus the Free World.

Werner's early aptitude for science and math are his salvation from working the coal mines that entombed his father. The conformity and cruelty of his instructors and schoolmates in the elite Nazi Wehrmacht school are tough for the boy to handle, yet he doesn't dare to rebel and destroy his chance for a future.

Marie-Laure goes blind as a young child, and her locksmith father finds fabulous ways to empower his daughter to independence. When they're forced to flee Paris upon invasion, the pair settle with her mentally fragile great-uncle in a towering house on the coast in Saint-Malo.

Many have been critical of the super-short chapters and constantly switching perspectives and timeframes, but I thought it allowed the book to move briskly without my attention flagging. It's not a book that's tied up in a neat bow at the end - some things remain a mystery - again, much like real life.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and understand why it won both the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Also, it made me want to read Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea!

Beyond Courage

by Doreen Rappaport

Audio version.  A well researched look at some of the stories of the Jewish Holocaust.  The most haunting part of this tale is that every short story is true.  The reader will find himself/herself cheering alongside the members of the resistance as they devise each technique to outwit those in power.    Some stories may be familiar to adult readers, but many will also be new.  The juvenile audience will have an opportunity to imagine life separated from loved ones, often with the knowledge of imminent death.  The suffering endured by so many is chilling.  Alternatively, the courage and will to fight for the lives of others is empowering.  Many of the stories are short, so that they could easily be cherry picked for addition to a classroom setting.

Note: This is written for grades 5 and up.  Teen readers would enjoy combining this with the fiction title, Code Name: Verity by Elizabeth Wein for another perspective of the war.

The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy

The tiny island of Guernsey, off the coast of France but part of the UK, was occupied by German forces during WWII. Island residents who hadn't fled lived under Nazi rule for five years.

In this book, a young wife lives out the occupation while caring for two daughters and her elderly mother-in-law while her husband serves overseas. A group of German soldiers take up residence in the vacant house next door to Vivienne - just across the hedgerow and definitely within earshot. How the two groups interact and relate throughout the war becomes our story.

A couple of years ago, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows was on the best-seller list and covered a similar subject matter. Honestly, I also thought it covered the topic better. "The Soldier's Wife" takes a more melodramatic tone and a certain Harlequin-romance element sneaks around the edges of the storyline.

But while I saw the ending coming from a bomber's distance away, there were enough interesting twists to keep me reading. I find the idea of living in wartime a great dramatic foil and an interesting subject - I just wish this hadn't been quite so close to the previous book.

Along the Watchtower by Constance Squires

Lucinda's an army brat, newly stationed in Germany, and on an emergency mission to find her dad - who has forgotten to make any kind of accommodations for his arriving family. Mom's having a meltdown, the kids are hungry, and he forgot to apply for housing so they're in crummy temp housing. In the next hour, she earns a nickname, finds her dad, discovers German pastry, falls in love and then ruthlessly leaves him standing in the cold.

This is an incredibly well-written book about family, growing up and making-do in a military family. It's not a book where a lot happens, unless you count Lucy's eventual maturity.

The reason I picked up the book - and one reason I loved it so - is that music becomes Lucy's saving grace and a beacon in her uncertain life. She begins with an interest in pop music (don't we all?) and then, cassette by cassette, Lucy discovers the classics, which lead her to punk, metal, and true rock.