World War II: From the Rise of the Nazi Party to the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb (an Inquire & Investigate Book) by Diane C. Taylor, illustrated by Sam Carbaugh

The history of WWII is so big and so complicated, with roots going back to WWI, that it can sometimes (understandably) overwhelm students. Sure, they may like to read novels set in WWII, but they are usually about how main characters faced and met different kinds of challenges, which is great but they don't really give kids the whole picture of what this war was about.

So, how does a teacher, whether in the classroom or home schooling, help their young students understand how and why the world found itself at war again just 20 years after the "war to end all wars" had ended?

To answer that question, Diane Taylor goes back to World War I. In Chapter One, The First World War, Taylor gives a brief but detailed history of the causes for that the war, looking at the early alliances European countries formed as a way of avoiding conflicts and their lingering distrust of one another, especially Germany, so that by 1914, they were all primed for a war that just needed a spark. That spark came when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie of Austria were assassinated 1914. Taylor then brings the reader through the war, why the United States was pulled into it into the conflict, and the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the war.

Chapter Two, Hitler's Rise to Power, traces the rise of Adolf Hitler beginning with the economic factors that made it possible. The end of WWI and the reparations Germany was required to pay to the Allies helped bring about severe inflation, and that together with Hitler's National Socialist party, his anti-Semitic agenda and his desire to make Germany great again appealed to many Germans. It was just a matter of time until Hitler found a way to seize power and become Chancellor of Germany,

Chapter 3, The War in Europe, looks at the war in Europe, beginning with Germany's invasion of Poland, followed by the invasion of other European countries in Hitler's quest for more and more Lebensraum (living space) for German colonization. It also covers the Battle of Britain a/k/a the Blitz, Hitler's attempt to invade Russia and the beginning of the Holocaust.

Chapter 4, The Bombing of Pearl Harbor, details the U.S. entry into WWII, after a sneak attack of the American navy fleet in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, the U.S. response declaring war on Japan, and its ally Germany, home front fears of Japanese loyalty, and America's decision to open up concentration camps for Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, and the role of minorities in the still segregated armed services.

Chapter 5, War in the Pacific and Asia, covers the beginning of the war in the Pacific, America's unpreparedness against the strongly militarized Japanese, the capture of Americans and the Bataan Death March, the Japanese practice of death before dishonor, and the use of incendiary bombs against Japan, as well as the building of the Burma Road, needed to help supply China with essentials. The war in the Pacific was a very bloody war, yet most people on the home front were more focused on the war in Europe, and the reasons why are also looked at.

Chapter 6, War's End, looked at the factors that finally brought WWII to an end, beginning with the African and Italian Campaigns, and the invasion of Normandy or D-Day, the liberation of Europe and finally the liberation of Hitler's concentration and death camps, followed by the use of the atom bomb and the end of war in the Pacific.

Chapter 7, Legacies of World War II, focuses on the many stateless people who wandered Europe after the fighting stopped, having no place to call home, the birth of Israel, the Nuremberg trials of Nazis for crimes against humanity, and the new role of the United Nations and eventually the establishment of the European Union.

Why is World War II: From the Rise of the Nazi Party to the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb such a stand out book for teaching upper middle grade and high school students about WWII? Like all the books in the Inquire & Investigate series, this is an interactive text that gives enough information about each topic, designed to get kids to explore more in depth and to help them understand the causes, the aftermath, and consequences of a war of global magnitude. Along with photographs and maps, each chapter has sidebars with additional information and vocabulary labs, key questions, and prompts for more exploration. There are also pages with projects about different aspects of the war to inquire and investigate:

Teachers can also download a useful Classroom Guide to use with this book, courtesy of the publisher, Nomad Press.

Pair this this with The Holocaust: Racism and Genocide in World War II by Carla Mooney and Great World War II Projects You Can Build Yourself Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt for an in-depth study of WWII.

If you are a teacher or just interested in WWII history, I can't recommend these books highly enough.

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was provided by the publisher, Nomad Press

The Holocaust: Racism and Genocide in World War II (an Inquire & Investigate Book) by Carla Mooney, illustrated by Tom Casteel

This history of the Holocaust is such a complicated, often confusing history that teaching it can be difficult - especially to upper elementary/middle school students. Most students have read novels that take place during World War II and the Holocaust, and while they certainly help to explain things, teaching the facts can still be difficult. How do you reckon the intentional destruction of 11 million people, including the attempted extermination of the entire Jewish race, 6 million of whom did indeed die at the hand of the Nazis, with the desire of one man bent on achieving his own ends of creating a master race.

To help students and teachers understand the Holocaust better, Carla Mooney, who has written over 70 books for kids and teens covering science, social studies, and current events, has written a book to help readers learn about the Holocaust. In Chapter One, she begins with a brief, but detailed history of anti-Semitism, a history that began over 2000 years ago when the Romans exiled that Jews after defeating them and taking over their land in the Middle East, then brings the reader through the Enlightenment, the Great War and finally to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party.

Chapter Two traces the rise of the Nazi party, the use of propaganda to sway the German people, the early treatment of Jews, the Nuremberg Laws, and finally the violence of Kristallnacht, including the destruction of Jewish businesses and homes, the arrest of Jewish men, and the killing of other Jews.

Chapter Three details the occupation of different European countries by the Nazis, increased persecution of Jews, the different ghettos Jews were forced to live in until they were ultimately liquidated and the Jews sent "east" to concentration camps.

Chapter Four looks at the Final Solution and the different, inhumane ways the Nazis used for eliminating Jews, including mobile killing squads, slave labor camps, and finally the creation of extermination camps, some capable of killing as many a 6,000 people a day.

Chapter Five covers the end of the war, the liberation of concentration camps and the humanitarian crisis that followed, including the large number of displaced persons.

Chapter Six asks the question how could the Holocaust happen? And there are lots of reasons for it, beginning with the fact that other countries simple did not want to offer refuge to Jewish refugees by increasing their limits on immigration, as well as countries that collaborated with the Nazis.

Chapter Seven looks at the ways people found to resist the Nazis and save some Jews, including children, and Chapter Eight look at the legacy of the Holocaust.

So what makes this book different? The Holocaust: Racism and Genocide in World War II is not a book where the student passively receives information. This is an interactive book that helps readers understand the Holocaust using the Inquire and Investigate section found at the end of each chapter. Students are taught the use and value of primary sources, and there are activities for them that pertains to the particular chapters being studied. Here, for example, are the activity pages found at the end of the Introduction:

In addition to being interactive, you will also find sidebars that give more details, including Vocab Labs, Bear Witness sections, and key questions. There is also a detailed timeline, copious photographs and illustrations, a Glossary and a list of Sources. For students who can't used the QR code scans, there is a list at the back of the book of the websites used.

If you are a teacher or a student, or just have an interest in finding out more about the Holocaust, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was provided to me by the publisher, Nomad Press

World War II Spies: An Interactive History Adventure by Michael Burgan

So far, I have reviewed two of these interactive adventures that are designed to give the reader a sense of what life was life during World War II.  The first book was World War II: On the Home Front by Martin Gitlin, in which you could choose three different stories to follow: a woman living in NYC, a 12 year old boy in San Francisco or a wounded African American soldier from the segregated south.  The second book, World War II Pilots also gives the readers a choice of three stories to follow: a British pilot in the RAF, an American pilot fighting in the Pacific, or a Tuskegee Airman.

Now comes yet another You Choose WWII adventure, World War II Spies.  The basic format is the same as the other two books.  It begins with a short introduction to why the war began, and begins to introduce the topic of the book, in this case it is spying and military intelligence gathering.  Then you are give three stories to follow: a college student who joins the resistance in Denmark after that country is invaded by Hitler in April 1940, an agent working for the German Abwehr (the Abwehr was the German intelligence organization), or an American OSS agent (Office of Strategic Services, also a wartime intelligence gathering organization).

As each story unfolds, you are asked to make more choices about what you want to do.  For example, the first choice the college student in Denmark must make is whether to stay in Copenhagen so he can also look after his family while serving the resistance or go to London and train to be an agent.  You follow each choice to its end, then you can go back, begin again and make different choices.  In all, you get 3 stories, 38 choices and 22 endings.  Trust me, it is not a complicated as it sounds.

I have really gotten to like these You Choose adventures.  Throughout your adventure, there are maps and lots of photographs relevant to the path of each adventure you are following.  And there is lots of back matter for anyone who wants to find out more.  And further suggestions for setting up your own wartime spy adventure.

I was particularly interested in World War II Spies because so many of the books I have written about here include spying and espionage tactics that were such a part of WWII in all its forms.

Like the other interactive history books, World War II Spies, will have lots of appeal to any reader interested in the war.  It would also be a wonderful supplement to a classroom or home schooling situation studying the war.

I should probably tell you that there are about 30 You Choose books from Capstone Press covering all periods in history, not just World War II.  I mention it in case you think the format is appealing, but are interested in another historical period.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was purchased for my personal library

A very informative leaflet about British spying and espionage in WWII can be found HERE courtesy of Craig Simpson, who writes exciting WWII books for kids age 12+

Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week by Abby the Librarian

World War II: a visual history of the world's darkest days by Sean Callery

 This is a shiny new book from Scholastic, part of their Discover More series.  It covers World War II, beginning with the end of World War I and the rise of Nazism right through to the end and even some of the postwar period.  The layout consists of different time lines for each aspect of the war, as follows:  the path to war, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific theater, the war in Africa and the Middle East  and the End of the War,  followed by subcategories of information pertinent to the years covered in each timeline.

This is by no means an in-depth history of the war, but it is a comprehensive one and what it does is give a little information on a wide range of topics.  Two of the topics I liked best were the Resistance and Codes.  After reading so many books about how resistance workers or Special Operations Executive agents parachuting into an occupied area with a radio transmitter disguised in a suitcase, it was nice to see a large, clear photograph of a real one.  The same was true under the section on Codes, which I have always been fascinated with, particularly the German Enigma, a cipher machine which produced messages that the German thought were unbreakable.  Again there is a up-close photo of a real Enigma machine.

In the side margins of some of the pages are ways to get more information about what is covered, as well as definitions of words that may be unfamiliar.  Since I am interested in pop culture, I used that page as an example:

Click to enlarge

There is also a free digital book that you can download from Scholastic called WWII Heroes and Heroines.  It comes in PDF form so you will need Adobe Reader.  I actually did download this digital book and look through it.  I liked that among the adult heroes and heroines there was a section about the children who were also heroes, beginning with Anne Frank, but also including many unknown and unsung child.

Before I started this blog, I would have thought that young readers were not terribly interested in WWII beyond some interesting novels and what they learned in school, but the longer I write this, the more I hear from kids who are genuinely interested in it.  This is an ideal book for a classroom, a school library and certainly a homeschooling situation,  but it is also a great beginning reference book for any kid who is showing some curiosity.

World War II is truly an visual history, with an abundance of photographs, maps, and illustrations, some familiar, some not and none very graphic.  I was very happy to see that under the Holocaust section there was a special homage to the 1.5 million children who perished as well as a section on Wartime Childhood, since there are areas young people are very interested in.  "What was it like for kids?" is probably the question I am asked the most.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was provided by the publisher.

Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week by A Mom's Spare Time

World War II Pilots: an Interactive History Adventure by Michael Burgan

Last April, I reviewed an interactive book from the YouChoose World War II series called World War II: On the Home Front by Martin Gitlin.  I found it to be an excellent book for introducing readers to life on the home front.

Now comes this latest YouChoose adventure, World War II Pilots.  The basic premise is that you are given a situation and the story unfolds based on the choices you make at certain junctures of the story.   In Chapter 1 of World War II Pilots, the reader is first given some historical information about the events that led to the war beginning at the end of World War I.

At the end of the chapter, you have 3 choices: to follow the path of a British pilot in the RAF, an American pilot fighting in the Pacific Ocean or a Tuskegee Airman - all very interesting choices.  So you choose your path and at the end of each chapter, more choices can be made regarding the fate of the chosen pilot.  In fact, there are 36 choices altogether, given each pilot 12 possible ways to go.  And in the end, there are 20 different possible endings - 7 for the RAF pilot, & for the American pilot and 6 for the Tuskegee Airman.

I know this all sounds complicated.  I also think that, too, whenever I start these kinds of books, but they are designed for young readers and really aren't difficult at all and in fact, they are quite informative without being overwhelming.  I actually enjoyed going back and forth and making choices to see where each path led.  I also liked the photographs that are included and relevant to the path I was following.  For example, when I picked the Pacific Ocean pilot, there were pictures of things like Bataan, or the carrier he might taken off from.  I also found that concepts that might not be familiar were clearly explained.

I especially like the back matter.  First, there is a timeline of events in the war relevant to the stories.  Next, there are suggestions for designing your own World War II pilot stories - a female pilot in the RAF or in the US, a German pilot during the Blitz, a POW held by the Japanese or Germans, all requiring so research and imagination.  To help this along, there are suggestions for further reading in print and the Internet, a glossary and an extensive bibliography.

World War II Pilots is an excellent book for leisure reading as well as home schooling and classroom use.

This book is recommended for readers age 9-12
This book was an E-ARC from Net Galley

Curious?  You can download a sample chapter of World War II Pilots at Capstone Young Readers.

Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week by Laura at laurasalas