All But My Life

Gerda Weissman Klein's memoir All But My Life focuses on her experience as a Jewish girl during the Holocaust in Poland.

Students usually read The Diary of Anne Frank in middle school, and this novel would be a great companion piece for older students. The author's experiences during the Holocaust are heart breaking, but her positive spirit endures.

Watch the interview with the author about her experience.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the first book written by Khaled Hosseini. It explores the story of two young boys at the invasion of the communist Soviet Union. The reader takes an emotional ride with these two boys who experience a cultural/ societal change in Afghanistan.

This book is great for the boys in your classroom through an easily relatable male point of view novel. There are so many options for English/ Social collaborative projects!

Milkweed

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli is a touching, emotional book that touches high schoolers. Misha Pulsudski is an orphan who has a sort of big brother who looks out for him and "tells him about his family". Misha and Uri live in Warsaw and survive by stealing and sleeping where ever they can find an abandoned building. They spend quite a bit of time with a larger group of orphans, but that proves to not always be a great for the boys.

Misha is a gypsy who eventually decides he's going to pretend to be Jewish and moves into the Ghetto with his friend Janina's family. While living with this family he teaches Janina to steal and they sneak out of the Ghetto wall together every night. This books gives readers an up close experience with what it would have been like to live in the Ghetto and how hard it was to survive.

Night

Night by Elie Wiesel is a book about his experiences in Auschwitz, a concentration during World War II. The book follows Wiesel and his dad as they are taken away to a concentration camp, with details about the harsh experiences they experienced. Elie and his dad are separated from his mom and sisters and they feel lucky to just have one another. Elie feels he is living a nightmare and discusses the dehumanizing process of the camps.

This book is rather short but is full of vivid recollections from the Holocaust. The novel is at an 8.7 grade level, but could be used from 8th grade and up. I would use it as a supplementary material to teach the Holocaust.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns chronicles the lives of two female characters during the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The novel follows two female characters through their struggles with the oppressive Taliban regime, abusive arranged marriages, and the way women were generally viewed in society.

In the social studies classroom, A Thousand Splendid Suns gives insight to the treatment of women in a culture that is so stereotyped and misunderstood in the United States. It also provides a good tie to current events.

This would be a great pick for the English classroom because it is a popular piece of popular literature that provides different viewpoints. Furthermore, the author is from Afghanistan and his experiences bring authenticity to his writing.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a heart-wrenching work of non-fiction by a young adult from Sierra Leone. Beah was forced to become a soldier in the brutal civil war of Sierra Leone. He faced incredible hardship and violence.

Although it is quite graphic, Beah's work is also heartwarming. Beah survived such terrible things and has kept his positive spirit.

SUNY Potsdam chose this memoir for their First Year Experience common read for the Fall 2009 semester. Beah traveled to Potsdam and gave an incredible speech about his experiences and hosted a comprehensive question and answer session for the first year students. His honesty and his perseverance are truly inspirational.

In the social studies classroom, this book gives students a true idea of current events that are going on in Africa. It would fit well with a study of genocides and civil wars around the world.

In the English classroom, A Long Way Gone would be a work of diverse non-fiction that would help open the students' eyes to global issues. It is also good practice in identifying with a protagonist who is close to their age.

I strongly caution teachers, however, about how graphic the novel is. Be sure to read it thoroughly and gauge your students' maturity levels and needs before making it a class read!

Code Talker

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac, is an easy read for multiple grade levels.Throughout World War II, in the conflict fought against Japan, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the US effort, sending messages back & forth in an unbreakable code in the Navajo native language. Perfect for US history in discussing US involvement in WWII.