World War II is such an important time period in history, but it can be very difficult to teach children about this era because of its terrible realities. These children’s books help children understand the tragedies and sorrow of the war gently, without too many disturbing details, and also highlight some of the beautiful acts of compassion and selflessness that emerged in one of the world’s darkest hours. My children and I read all of the picture books we could find on this subject and these made the cut for the best World War II books for kids. Most of the books on this list are nonfiction books, but there are a few historical fiction choices as well. I hope this children’s book collection enhances your study of the Second World War.
The Secret Project by Jonah Winter and Jeanette Winter
Tells the true story of how American scientists developed the atomic bomb.
Miep and the Most Famous Diary: The Woman Who Rescued Anne Frank’s Diary by Meeg Pincus
This is a moving, inspiring, and beautifully sorrowful telling of the story of Anne Frank through the eyes of Miep Gies, based on her own first-hand account. It is the story of how Miep met the Frank family, became friends with Anne, and helped to hide the Franks in the Secret Annex in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The story tells us how the Frank family was betrayed and found by Nazi soldiers, and how Miep stood up to the soldiers and saved Anne’s diary, which is how we came to have Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. This is a unique perspective on the story of Anne Frank, and a good lntroduction to Miep Gies. Highly recommend!
The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren
Based on a real event, this is a fictional account of how the people of a Danish town came together in a very unique way to help guide a Jewish family to safety during the Holocaust. This is a simple and easy book to read, and the story is free of the more disturbing details about the Holocaust, which makes this book a good choice for very young children. The story features a young boy who helps his family hide and take care of Jewish refugees, then acts bravely to protect and help them escape to freedom. The story is told from the boy’s perspective, which gives it a tone of innocence and simplicity. This is overall a hopeful and inspiring Holocaust book for kids.
The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark by Carmen Agra Deedy
As the title says, this story is a legend; it is unknown whether the events in the story actually took place. The story, however, is a beautiful representation of the kind of courage and compassion that the Danish people truly demonstrated during World War II. It is about how beloved King Christian selflessly defied the Nazis and stood with his Jewish subjects. This is one of my favorite WWII stories.
The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden
This is a fictional story set in Holland about a boy who helps his neighbor’s children escape to safety across the border after their father is arrested by the Nazis. The illustrations are gorgeous!
Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady
This is a true story about a librarian in California named Clara Breed who wrote and sent books to Japanese-American children that had been sent to internment camps during WWII, in response to the paranoia that started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It includes excerpts from actual letters from the children, woven into the story. This book is a little window into what many Japanese Americans experienced during the war. Very good read appropriate for all ages.
The Harmonica by Tony Johnston
The story of how a young Jewish boy uses music to cling to hope and help others do the same. Based on the true story of a concentration camp survivor, Henryk Rosmaryn. While heartbreaking and raw, it is also beautiful and inspiring. Beautifully written with beautiful illustrations to match.
Tail-end Charlie by Mick Manning
This book tells about the experiences of the author’s father as an airgunner in World War II. The story is in kind of a scrapbook format, so it’s a little hard for young kids (meaning early elementary) to follow, but has some great information for older kids, especially those who are somewhat familiar with WW2 already.
The Girl Who Could Fix Anything: Beatrice Shilling, World War II Engineer – by Mara Rockliff
This is the true story of Beatrice Shilling and how she defied the limits for women of her time and shared her incredible intelligence and skill in the service of her country. Great story!
Bartali’s Bicycle: The True Story of Gino Bartali, Italy’s Secret Hero by Megan Hoyt
This is an amazing true story about bicyclist Gino Bartali who used his speed and fame to help with the resistance during WWII. Bartali helped save over 800 Jews in Italy through his efforts. This is a fantastic story appropriate for all ages. I’d consider it a must-read!
Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II by Marisabina Russo
This is a true account of a Jewish family’s experiences in Germany during WWII, told by a grandmother to her granddaughter. There is some heavy material here – Kristallnacht and concentration camps are mentioned, though not in much detail. You may want to preview the story before reading it to young or sensitive children. I thought it was a very good window into what life was like for Jewish families during the war.
Virginia Was a Spy by Catherine Urdahl
This is a true story about Virginia Hall, an American woman and amputee, who, despite her physical limitations, assisted the Allied Forces as a spy and saboteur. Virginia’s determination, courage, and resourcefulness are inspiring! This book gives us lots of interesting details about the work of secret agents during the Second World War.
30 Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot’s World War II Story by Marc Tyler Nobleman
This is a unique story of reconciliation between a Japanese pilot and the town that he bombed. THis picture book is great because it offers different perspectives on World War II than most of the other books written for children on this subject. The overall theme of the book is forgiveness and hope. It’s a lovely addition to WWII studies!
Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto By Susan Goldman Rubin
An account of Irena Sendler and the hundreds of Jewish children that she managed to hide from the Germans during the occupation of Poland. This story shares a lot of tragic details about the way children had to part from their families in order to be saved, and disturbing events, such as the way Irena was tortured by the Germans when she was caught, so you may want to preview the book before sharing it with your children. Definitely a worthwhile read.
Jars of Hope: How One Woman Helped Save 2,500 Children During the Holocaust by Jennifer Roy
This is another book about Irena Sendler. This story tells readers about how from the time she was a young girl Irena wanted to help people, so she became a social worker. When the Nazis invaded Poland she knew the Jewish people that had been forced into the Warsaw ghetto desperately needed aid, so she began to smuggle in food, and later, smuggle out children, in order to save their lives. She kept records of the children and their families, hoping to reunite them someday, and buried the records in the ground in jars. This is an inspiring account of Irena Sendler’s compassionate work during World War II, but the content will not be appropriate for all children – it gives some details about how Irena was tortured when she was arrested, and the idea of children being taken from their families will of course be troubling to many young children, so please preview the book before sharing it with your little ones.
The Spy Who Played Baseball by Carrie Jones
The true story of Moe Berg, an American Jewish man who chose to leave his career as a baseball player and help defeat the Nazis by becoming a spy. One thing I really liked about this book was the account of the prejudice that Moe experienced as a Jew in the United States and how he refused to accept it. Great for all ages.
Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen as told to Michelle R. McCann by Luba Tryszynska-Frederick
This is an amazing true story of a woman who went to great lengths at her own peril to save orphaned children in Bergen-Belsen. This story is deeply moving and inspiring but also heavy because of the terrible realities of the war. It recounts children being taken from their parents and being left in the woods to die, and gives details about the starvation and hardships experienced by the prisoners of Bergen-Belsen. I highly highly recommend this beautiful story, but exercise caution with young readers who might find it too disturbing. My sensitive seven-year-old handled it just fine, however.
Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee by Marissa Moss
Maggie had a dream of flying one day. When the United States entered World War II, she seized the opportunity to make her dream come true and serve her country at the same time by becoming a WASP – Women Airforce Service Pilot. She was one of only two Chinese American women to do so. Great story!
The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee by Julie Leung
This is the true story of one of two Chinese American women to become Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II. It gives lots of interesting details on what the WASPs did, and also gives us a window into the racism experienced by Asian Americans of that era. I really enjoyed this story!
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II by Lita Judge
Lita Judge (the author) tells her mother and grandmother’s true story of helping poverty-stricken Germans in the aftermath of WWII. This story is tender, warm, and full of goodness. This one is a must-read at the end of your WWII study!
Star of Fear, Star of Hope by Jo Hoestlandt
As a rule, I only include books on my book lists that I really like. I’m breaking the rule with this one. While it is interesting and well-written, I do not like this book. I don’t like it because it’s sad, painful, and haunting, but I’m including it because I think that is exactly why it is valuable to a study of WWII. This is the story of a young girl who loses her best friend to the Nazis, never to see or hear from her again. She never learns what has become of her. There is no happy ending here. It is sad with no real redemption, which mimics the reality, in a very small measure, of so much of the Holocaust.
Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
This is a sweet story about a Dutch family who received boxes of supplies from America, which helped them and their community make it through the harsh winter that followed World War II. This is based on the real experience that the author’s mother had as a young girl, and helps children understand the extreme deprivation that much of Europe endured after the war.
The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida
This fictional story is told from the point-of-view of a young girl who is being forced to leave her home and move to an internment camp for Japanese Americans. It does a great job of relaying the sense of loss and injustice of this unfortunate event in history.
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
This is a story written from a young boy’s point of view of about his experience in a Japanese internment camp. This is based off actual events and tells how baseball helped the prisoners endure.
Barbed Wire Baseball: How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII by Marissa Moss
The true story of professional baseball player Kenichi Zenimura and how he kept hope alive through sharing his love of baseball.
Lumber Jills: The Unsung Heroines of World War II by Alexandra Davis
Tells the little known story of the young women who helped the war effort by taking over the lumber industry. The text is simple and the illustrations are sweet.
Anne Frank by Josephine Poole
This is the only picture book I have seen that really explains why Hitler targeted the Jews and how he was able to convince others to hate them as well. This is an excellent story about Anne’s life and experience in hiding, in a condensed picture-book form. It is tragic, of course, but touches the horrors of the Holocaust lightly enough to keep the book appropriate for young children.
The Promise by Pnina Bat-Zvi and Margie Wolfe
This is the true story of two sisters who helped each other survive Aushwitz. The story is sad and talks about life in a concentration camp, but with a light touch that keeps it suitable for younger children.
The Cat Who Lived with Anne Frank by David Lee Miller
Tells the story of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl in hiding, through the point of view of the cat that lived in the Annex with her. This is a great book for young, sensitive children because the story is warm and upbeat in tone, but still effective at introducing the difficult subject of the Holocaust.
Nicky and Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued by Peter Sis
This is the true story of a young man who helped over 600 Jewish children escape from Czechoslovakia to the safety of London during the Nazi occupation. Nicholas Winton canceled a ski vacation and began helping Jewish refugees in Prague, almost on a whim, and dedicated himself to helping place as many Jewish children with foster families in England as he could. His story is woven with Vera’s story, who was one of the children he actually helped save. We learn in the story that many of the children who start a new life in England never see their families again, in most cases because their parents have been killed. The story highlights the horrible tragedies of the Holocaust, but also how the evil of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s was thwarted by regular people doing heroic things.
Francesco Tirelli’s Ice Cream Shop by Tamar Meir
This is the sweet story of a man who hid Jews in his ice cream shop in Hungary to shield them from Nazi soldiers. This book is based on real events and is tame enough for very young children.
The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Louise Borden
This is a really cool story! Though it is fictional, it is told as if it was the first-hand account of a young girl who helps her father rescue soldiers from Dunkirk on his fishing boat. The story is a bit long, so it is best suited to later elementary and up.
The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter
This is such a good book! It is a story about the heroic Navajo code talkers who created an unbreakable code that helped the Allies win World War 2. This book is historical fiction, but about real events and people, told in an easily accessible narrative about a boy and his grandfather. The code talkers are a very interesting aspect of WWII and the history of Native Americans that doesn’t appear in many children’s books. I highly recommend this one!
Love is in the Air: The Story of Aviation Pioneer Nancy Harkness Love by Dee Romito
This is the non-fiction story of a woman who led the first Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron during World War II. She was also part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Something really interesting about Nancy Harkness Love is that she started flying planes when she was only 16 years-old!
Hold On to Your Music: The Inspiring True Story of the Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen
This is a beautiful picture book about a little Jewish girl named Lisa Jura who lived in Vienna before World War II broke out. Lisa’s parents sent her to London through the Kindertransport in order to keep her safe. Lisa was an accomplished pianist, and despite being displaced and far from her family, Lisa brought hope to other refugee children through her music, and went on to become a concert pianist. This true story is told in a gentle way that makes it a good choice for younger readers.
My Hiroshima by Junko Morimoto
The author of this book was a child in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb hit the city. She and her family survived, and she tells the true story of her experience of living through the bombing. Though this is a picture book, the content and illustrations are by nature unsettling, so I recommend previewing the book before sharing it with young people. It might be a little bit too disturbing for some children. The story shares an important perspective on the events of World War II that is not found in many other picture books.
A Bowl Full of Peace: A True Story by Caren Stelson
Of all the true stories I have read in picture books about World War 2, this one might be the most heart-breaking. It is about a little girl who lived in Nagasaki when it was hit by an atomic bomb. All of her siblings and her parents were eventually killed by the bomb, either in the days immediately following the bombing, or years later as a result of the radiation. This is such a sorrowful story, and yet such an important story to tell. Please preview this book before sharing it with young and sensitive children.
Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talkers Story by Joseph Bruchac
This is a true story about Chester Nez, who was one of the Navajo code talkers. The story is told in a beautiful and moving way that helps the reader understand some of the difficult things that Native Americans have endured, and also the heroic way in which they helped their country during World War II.
The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photohraphs by Chana Stiefel
This is one of my favorite books about the Holocaust. It tells the true story of Yaffa, a young Jewish girl who grew up in a small village in Poland. Yaffa’s village was destroyed and all of her Jewish neighbors were killed or taken away by the Nazis. Yaffa’s family was fortunate to have been able to escape, but Yaffa endured many hardships in hiding for the duration of the war. As an adult, Yaffa paid tribute to the lives of the people of her village that were lived and lost though creating the Tower of Life, an exhibit at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.. This book is sad, but gentle enough in it’s details and descriptions that it is still appropriate for young children
Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust by Elisa Boxer
The gorgeous illustrations in this book complement the beautiful true story of a young Jewish girl named Judith Geller who worked for the French Resistance. Judith secretly delivered documents that gave Jewish people a fake identity and saved over 200 lives. She used an unexpected hiding place for the forged documents that she delivered – the inside of a wooden toy! There is a photograph of the actual toy duck that Judith used, which is pretty cool to see. The courage of this young girl is stunning, and the story is told in a lovely, lyrical way. This picture book is a feast for the eyes, the ears, and the heart. We loved this one and I highly recommend it!
Brothers in Arms: A True World War II Story of Wojtek the Bear and the Soldiers Who Loved Him by Susan Hood
My kids love animal stories and this is one of the best children’s books that we have read about how animals participated in war. It is the true story of a bear who was rescued as a cub and become part of the war effort – eventually even becoming enlisted! He was a friend, comfort, and helper to the Polish soldiers who were released from the prison camps in Siberia. He even caught a spy at one time! This book is sweet, silly, and also gives a lot of information on an aspect of World War 2 that I haven’t come across in other picture books – the fight between the Stalin and the Soviets and Hitler in Poland. Even though this is not a short book and has a lot of text for a picture book, we really enjoyed every bit of it – even my two-year-old stayed engaged!
Dorothy the Brave by Meghan P. Browne
This book tells the story of Dorothy Lucas, who became a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). The story is engaging and easy to follow. It gives us some important information about the war over the course of the story, such as how the United States entered World War II as a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The story has a really personal touch which helps convey the human cost of the war. My favorite thing about this book is how it shows the way that women were involved in the war effort on the home front, as nurses, riveters, telephone operators, and of course, WASPs!
Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport by Caren Stelson
This picture book tells the story of the Kindertransport from Prague from the point of view of the Jewish boys and girls who rode it to safety. The story is painful to read because it puts the reader in the shoes of the children who had to leave their families, which is heart-wrenching to imagine. The writing is poignant and effectively conveys the sorrow of the children and families who were separated. At the end, the book tells about Nicholas Winton, one of the people who helped arrange passage on the Kindertransport and who saved 669 Jewish children. Though it is difficult and emotional, it is a powerful and worthwhile read. I recommend the book, and I also recommend previewing it to make sure it is appropriate for the children you intend to share it with, since it is on the heavy side.
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Secret Agent During World War II: A Perilous Mission Behind Enemy Lines by John Mahan
This is a super interesting book about the agents of the France section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) which was basically an branch of the military in Britain that organized secret missions and spy work during World War II. The book covers so many fascinating parts of this aspect of the war, including the training of the spies, and the tools and tactics that they used. If your child is into military history or interested in spies, this book is for them! My kids found it fascinating and so did I. As with the other books in this series, the author adds a light and humorous touch to an otherwise intense subject.
You Wouldn’t Want to be a World War II Pilot! Air Battles You Might Not Survive by Ian Graham
This book is full of lots of facts and information about how American pilots, called Eagle Squadrons, joined forces with the Royal Air Force to assist in the war effort. The book also mentions Pearl Harbor and the the U.S. Navy pilots. There is lots of interesting information in this book about pilots in World War II, but I would save this book for kids who have a particular interest in this subject.
Taking Off: Airborne with Mary Wilkins Ellis by Emily Arnold McCully
This is the story of Mary Wilkins Ellis, who joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, which involved civilians, including women, in delivering planes for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Britain during World War II. Mary’s story is like a British counterpart to the women of the WASP, so it gives an interesting perspective from the British point of view. I really enjoyed this book!
The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse
This is a beautiful fictional story based on true events that took place in Warsaw, Poland during World War II. Resistance fighters used cats to distract the dogs of German soldiers in order to smuggle food to the starving Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. The text is poetic and the illustrations are lovely, complementing this touching tale of courage and compassion. The author’s note at the end of the book explains more about the event and the Warsaw ghetto.
Benno and the Night of Broken Glass by Meg Wiviott
This story is told from the point of view of Benno, a neighborhood cat who was cared for by many different families in Berlin, Germany. Benno witnesses how life changes for the Jewish people in his neighborhood at the onset of World War II, and the terrible destruction of the Night of Broken Glass. This story is told about as gently as it can be, since it is dealing with an inherently disturbing and horrible subject. This is a good book for introducing children to the Holocaust and opening a discussion about the treatment of Jews by the Nazis.
I hope you enjoyed this list of high-quality children’s books about World War 2. Thank you for visiting! Feel free to check out my other lists of history books for children.
