The Giant Print Library

Topic list - Second World WarUpdated: April 2013

Age ranges: Up to 13+

Any UK member of our library service may borrow up to a maximum of 6 books per service for a 3 month loan period.

Most of the books have been produced by the National Blind Children's Society and are in 24 point type with identical covers to the ordinary print versions of the books.

Logo – RNIB supporting blind and partially sighted peopleRegistered charity number 226227

Please be aware that due to their size, many of the books are split into two or more volumes, and these will have the same covers.

For details on borrowing any of the titles listed or for further information regarding the Giant Print collection please contact Liz Farrell or Hazel Sharrock, Children's Librarians at RNIB National Library Service on 0161 429 1975.

Second World War

Bawden, NinaCarrie's war. 1993. 1v. Suggested reading age 11+.Evacuated from London to Wales during the Second World War, Carrie and her brother are sent to live with the very strict Mr Evans. But in trying

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to heal the breach between Mr Evans and his estranged sister, Carrie does the worst thing she ever did in her life.

Boyne, John.The boy in the striped pyjamas. 2006. 1v. Suggested reading age 13+.Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. Then he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. Bruno's friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation.

Burgess, Melvin.An angel for May. 1994. 2v. Suggested reading age 13+.Tam often takes refuge in the ruins of Thowt It Farm when he is unhappy at

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home. One day he follows an old beggar woman and her dog to the farm and is transported back to the Second World War. There he makes friends with May who tries to persuade him to stay at Thowt It, but Tam is afraid of being permanently trapped in the past.

Cormier, Robert.Heroes. 1999. 1v. Suggested reading age 13+.Maimed and disfigured whilst fighting in the war, young Francis Cassavant must hide both his face and his identity when he goes back home. For his past holds a bitter secret.

Cross, Vince.Blitz : a wartime girl's diary, 1940-1941. 2008. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.Part of the My Story series. It's 1940 and with London under fire Edie and

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her little brother are evacuated to Wales. Miles from home and missing her family, Edie is torn between obeying her parents and protecting her brother.

Dahl, Roald.Going solo. 1988. 2v. Suggested reading age 9+. Sequel to Boy. This second part of Roald Dahl's autobiography creates a world as bizarre and unnerving as anyone will find in his fiction. An evocation of his wartime exploits, it tells of African safaris and deadly snakes; of fighter planes and air battles with the enemy during World War 2.

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Deary, Terry.The blitzed Brits. 1994. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.Part of the Horrible Histories series. This is history with the nasty bits left in. What really happened to Dad's army? Want to know how to make a rude noise with a gas mask? This book provides spiffing slang, foul food facts about rotten rationing, and the terrible facts about London's bloodthirsty blackout murderer.

Deary, Terry.Woeful Second World War. 2007. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.Part of the Horrible Histories series. If you want to hear the dreadful truth about Dad's Army, or how sweet rationing drove a teacher to steal from his pupils, or what happened when an elephant got loose in the blackout, the full foul facts about life on the home

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front are laid out before your ears. It's packed with quizzes, sketches and jokes, as well as mini-dramas and real life re-enactments - telling you the kind of foul facts which just aren't available from a classroom education!

Fowke, Bob.World War II. 1997. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+. Did you know that Adolf Hilter wasn't, in fact, German? The Second World War brought horror and heartache to millions of people all over the globe, and it turned everyday living upside down too. Any history book will give you the boring facts they think you should know, but only this one will tell you what life during World War II was really like ...

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Frank, Anne.The diary of a young girl. 1998. 3v. Suggested reading age 13+.In July 1942, thirteen year old Anne Frank and her family fled from the horrors of Nazi occupation, and went into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years Anne vividly describes in her diary the frustration of living in such confined quarters.

Geras, Adele.A candle in the dark. 1995. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.Germany, 9th November, 1938. After the horrors of this night, when Nazi storm troopers destroyed all the synagogues and Jewish property, Clara needs all her courage. She and her little brother, Maxi, must leave behind everything they know, and go

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to England to live with a family they have never met.

Gleitzman, Morris.Once. 2006. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.Book 1 of the Felix and Zelda series. Then and Now are also available. Felix has lives in a convent orphanage high in the mountains in Poland, but he is convinced his parents are still alive and will come back to get him. When a group of Nazi soldiers come and burn the nuns' books, Felix is terrified that his Jewish, bookseller parents will also be in danger. After escaping from the orphanage, Felix embarks on a long and dangerous journey through Nazi occupied Poland, befriending a little orphan girl called Zelda and a kindly dentist, Barney, who hides and cares for Jewish children.

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Hartnett, SonyaThe midnight zoo. 2010. 1v. Suggested reading age 13+.Under the cover of darkness, two brothers cross a war-ravaged countryside carrying a secret bundle. One night they stumble across a deserted town reduced to smouldering ruins. But at the end of a blackened street they find a small green miracle: a zoo filled with animals in need of hope.

Hearn, JulieRowan the strange. 2009. 2v. Suggested reading age 13+.As the second World War begins, Rowan is diagnosed as schizophrenic and sent away to a hospital where the latest treatments are available. But the treatments are experimental still - and nobody predicts the effect they will have on Rowan.

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Hughes, Shirley.The lion and the unicorn. 2000. 1v. Suggested reading age 5+.As Lenny's father goes off to fight in World War II he gives his son a brass badge with a lion and a unicorn on it. Lenny keeps it with him when the bombs are dropped on his street and when he has to be evacuated to a big house in the country.

Ibbotson, Eva.The dragonfly pool. 2009. 3v. Suggested reading age 9+. Tally Hamilton is furious to hear she is being sent from London to a horrid, stuffy boarding school in the countryside. And all because of the stupid war. But Delderton Hall is a far more interesting place than Tally ever imagined, and an exciting school trip to the beautiful and luscious kingdom of

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Bergania whisks Tally into an unexpected adventure.

Kerr, Judith.When Hitler stole pink rabbit. 1971. 2v. Suggested reading age 11+.When Anna's father flees Germany in the dead of the night, it is a matter of life and death to keep it secret. Two weeks later on the eve of the Nazis coming to power, Anna, her brother Max, and their mother secretly join him in Switzerland. It is the beginning of their adventures.

Magorian, Michelle.Goodnight Mister Tom. 1981. 2v. Suggested reading age 11+A touching story of the friendship that developed between a small, unhappy boy and the gruff lonely man on whom

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he was billeted at the outbreak of the war.

Morpurgo, Michael.The amazing story of Adolphus Tips. 2006. 1v. Suggested reading age 11+.A heart-warming tale of courage and warmth, set against the backdrop of the Second World War, about an abandoned village, a lifelong friendship and one very adventurous cat!

Morpurgo, Michael.Friend or foe. 2007. 1v. Suggested reading age 7+.During the Second World War, David and his friend Tucky are evacuated to the countryside. One night they see a German plane crash on the moors. They feel they should hate the airmen inside, but can they just leave them to die?

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Morpurgo, MichaelLittle Manfred. 2011. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there! When the Bismarck sinks, one of the only German survivors is taken on board a British ship as a prisoner of war. Sent to live with a host family, Walter must adapt to a new way of life, in the heart of an enemy country. Gradually, though, he finds a friend in ten-year-old Grace…

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Serraillier, Ian.The silver sword. 1956. 1v. Suggested reading age 11+.Although the silver sword was only a paper knife, it became the symbol of hope and courage which kept four deserted children alive through the years of occuption, and afterwards on the exhausting and dangerous journey from war-torn Poland to Switzerland, where they hoped to find their parents.

Swindells, Robert.Blitzed. 2003. 1v. Suggested reading age 11+.Imagine being alive before your parents were born! George is fascinated by World War Two bombers, Nazis, doodlebugs. Even evacuation and rationing has got to be more exciting than living in dreary old Witchfield!

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Turnbull, Ann.Josie under fire. 2004. 1v. Suggested reading age 9+.Part of the historical house series. London is suffering from the Blitz and the country is gripped by patriotic fervour. Josie finds it hard to understand her brother's decision to be a conscientious objector, especially as it causes trouble for their family. But when she moves to a new school and gets drawn into tormenting one of her classmates, Josie learns what it means to stand up for her own beliefs.

Woodcock, Sandra.Anne Frank. 1998. 1v. Suggested reading age 11+.Part of the Livewire series with a teenage/adult interest level for those with reading ages below 10 yrs. A more basic biography of Anne Frank.

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