Kids Book Index
Monica Hesse
In 1944, Margot and Haruko are displaced from Iowa and Colorado to Crystal City, Texas, after their families’ ties to Germany and Japan bring them to an internment camp. The two teenagers meet at the camp’s high school and face uncertainty about their fathers’ loyalties. As a friendship develops, they wrestle with whether to accept it. World War II frames their lives.
This book appears on 1 reading list across 1 edition.
Two RoadsJoseph BruchacSet during the Great Depression, the story follows Cal after his father reveals that they are Creek. His father sends him to Challagi, a government boarding school for Native American students in Oklahoma, where other Creek boys take him in. The novel also addresses racism, the Bonus Army, homelessness, the mixed effects of Indian schools, and Native history, alongside the experiences of Cal’s World War I veteran father.Twelve to FourteenLexile Text Measure 740LATOS Book Level 4.9On the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details
The Orphan Band of SpringdaleAnne NesbetIn 1940s America, eleven-year-old Gusta, also called Augusta Neubronner, is sent from New York City to her grandmother’s Maine orphanage after her father becomes a fugitive. With the United States nearing World War II, she faces classmates’ suspicions about her German name and encounters prejudice in the small town. As family secrets emerge, Gusta finds comfort in playing with the orphanage band. Her father is a foreign-born labor organizer who has fled the country.Nine to TwelveOn the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details
Until Tomorrow, Mr. MarsworthSheila O’ConnorReenie struggles with the move to her parents’ Midwestern hometown. When she and her older brother, Dare, begin a paper route, she finds something to anticipate. Set during the Vietnam War era, the story follows her correspondence with a reclusive man in town. Their exchange brings her into contact with differing views on war, the draft, and nonviolence. The book includes an author’s note and resources.HISTORY/LIFE & CULTURE IN THE AMERICASOn the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details