WOW--what a response! Thanks so much for the titles! I knew that it would be good,
but it's great! Thanks again!
Valerie Brunner
Mt Zion Jr. High Librarian
brunnerv@mtzion.k12.il.us
"Be kind. Everyone you know is fighting a hard battle."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ohhhh I love Cracker, The Best Dog In Vietnam! by Cynthia Kadohata. It is a great
coming of age story about the young man as well as super dog story.
Try Graham Salisbury's Eyes of the Emperor and related books. We used it for a One
Book program last year and had a visit from him. Very good choice.
Private Peaceful by Morpurgo (WWI)--SLJ says grades 7 & up, Booklist (starred
review) says grades 7-12
Code Talker by Bruchac (WWII)--SLJ says grades 5 and up, Booklist (starred review)
says grades 6-9.
"B" is for Buster by Iain Lawrence (WWII)--SLJ says grade 7 & up, Booklist says
grades 7-12
Under A War Torn Sky
I just read Patricia McCormick's new book, Purple Heart, this past weekend. That
one is about the current Iraq War. There is some strong language in it, but it is
pretty tame compared to Fallen Angels! It does not have a lot of "battle action,"
but focuses on the psychological battles of one soldier as he recovers from an
injury.
How about the companion to Fallen Angels, Sunrise Over Fallujah?
One of our students just read and recommended The Winter War: A Novel by William
Durbin. I haven't read it but he really enjoyed it!
Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
Code Talker by Bruchac might be a good choice.
WWI
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
WWII
Don't You Know There's a War On? by Avi
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
London Calling by Edward Bloor
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac
Daniel Half Human by David Chotjewitz
Shadow of the Wall - Christa Laird
Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
The Gadget by Paul Zindel
Vietnam
Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata
The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United States Marine Corps by Ellen Emerson
White
Iraq
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
--The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
--Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (my 8th-graders do a memoir unit and one of
the most popular titles is O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship
Me Home so easy pairing of fiction & nonfiction)
I don't know the reading levels, but when I was a teenager, I liked to read POW
escape books.
Here are a few that I remember:
The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill
The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams
The Colditz Story by P.R. Reid
Depending upon the reading level of your boys, the "My Name is America" series from
Scholastic is from a male point of view. They are written in a journal format and
there are books from various time periods.
THE JOURNAL OF JASPER JONATHAN PIERCE: A Pilgrim Boy by Ann Rinaldi
THE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM THOMAS EMERSON: A Revolutionary War Patriot Boston,
Massachusetts, 1774 by Barry Denenberg
THE JOURNAL OF AUGUSTUS PELLETIER: The Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804 by Kathryn
Lasky
THE JOURNAL OF JESSE SMOKE: A Cherokee Boy, The Trail of Tears, 1838 by Joseph
Bruchac
THE JOURNAL OF JEDEDIAH BARSTOW: An Emigrant on the Oregon Trail, Overland, 1845
THE JOURNAL OF DOUGLAS ALLEN DEEDS: The Donner Party Expedition, 1846 by Rodman
Philbrick
THE JOURNAL OF WONG MING-CHUNG: A Chinese Miner, California, 1852 by Laurence Yep
THE JOURNAL OF RUFUS ROWE: A Witness to the Battle of Fredricksburg, Bowling Green,
Virginia, 1862
THE JOURNAL OF JAMES EDMOND PEASE: A Civil War Union Soldier, Virginia, 1863 by Jim
Murphy
THE JOURNAL OF SEAN SULLIVAN: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker, Nebraska and
Points West, 1867 by William Durbin
THE JOURNAL OF JOSHUA LOPER: A Black Cowboy, The Chisholm Trail, 1871 by Walter
Dean Myers
THE JOURNAL OF BRIAN DOYLE: A Greenhorn on an Alaskan Whaling Ship, 1874 by Jim
Murphy
THE JOURNAL OF OTTO PELTONEN: A Finnish Immigrant, 1905 by William Durbin
THE JOURNAL OF BEN UCHIDA: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp, California,
1942 by Barry Denenberg
THE JOURNAL OF SCOTT PENDLETON COLLINS: A World War II Soldier, Normandy France,
1944 by Walter Dean Myers
THE JOURNAL OF BIDDY OWENS: The Negro Leagues, 1948 by Walter Dean Myers
THE JOURNAL OF C. J. JACKSON, A Dust Bowl Migrant, Oklahoma to California, 1935 by
William Durbin
THE JOURNAL OF PATRICK SEAMUS FLAHERTY: A United States Marine Corps, Khe Sanh,
Vietnam, 1968 by Ellen Emerson White
THE JOURNAL OF FINN REARDON, A NEWSIE: New York City, 1899 by Susan Campbell
Bartoletti
Most are around a 5th to 6th grade reading level.
Susan Bartoletti also has a book called "The Boy Who Dared" about a young man in
the Hitler Youth who comes to see that he does not agree with their goals and
begins to work against the Nazi regime.
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers is good.
All Quiet on the Western Front is great and an easy read for 7th-8th graders
There are some war books by Harry Mazer
Richard Hughes has one called Search and Destroy set during Vietnam.
Walter Dean Myers has a sequel of sorts to Fallen Angel set during the first
invasion of Iraq called Sunrise Over Fallujah - there's a male main characters, but
quite a few female soldiers as well.
Megiddo's Shadow by Arthur Slade = WWI in Africa
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo = WWI
Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillbean = WWI (he recently published a new WWI called
Age 14. It's on my to be read pile.)
Try Harry Mazer's Boy at War
Last Mission
Paulsen's Soldier's heart
T. Taylor's The Cay
Innocent Soldier by Josef Holub
Slap Your Sides by M. E. Kerr
Search and Destroy by Dean Hughes
Dead In Iraq by Eve Ottenberg
Summer's End by Couloumbis, Audrey
Shooting the Moon by Frances Dowell
How about Cracker by Cynthia Kadohata?
Try L. M. Elliott. She's a woman, but writes about war from a boys vantage. I saw
her at a conference over the summer. Very good! Some of the books were better for
jr high rather than elementary
Cracker by Kadahota
Daniel half human, The boy who dared, Eyes of the Emperor, Code Talkers.
Laura Malone Elliott writes war books with a male protagonist. There's also one by
Carolyn Reeder. I'm not sure of the title.
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, Color of the Sea by John Hamanura, Kiplings Choice
by Geert Spillebeen and Under a War Torn Sky by L.M. Elliott are a few titles that
come to mind.
Walter Dean Means has a somewhat sequel to Fallen Angels called Sunrise over
Fallujah. There is also a WWI novel called The Lord of the Nutcracker Men by
Lawrence.
The Boy who Dared - Bartoletti, Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Boyne, The Last
Mission - Mazer, Four Steps to Death - Wilson, Private Peaceful - Morpurgo,
Amaryllis - Crist-Evans
The Red Necklace by Gardner has a young boy involved in the French Revolution.
It's really good!
Codetalkers by Bruchac (WW II) Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (WWI)
Amaryllis by Craig Crist-Evans (Vietnam) hope this helps - I have 5 copies each of
those
Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes
Brothers in Valor: a story of resistance by Michael Tunnell
Iron Thunder: the battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac by Avi
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
No Man's Land: a young soldier's story by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
And in the Morning by John Wilson
Elephant Run
The Flambards/ peyton...old but good(WWI); Richard Peck and Milton Meltzer have
newer titles that fit your criteria.
Cracker! the Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata
Letters from Wolfie by Patti Sherlock
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier (if you can use Revolutionary War
titles)
Cracker! the Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata Letters from Wolfie by Patti
Sherlock My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier (if you can use
Revolutionary War titles)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
* LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home