Do you love reading historical fiction in your homeschool?
Reading historical fiction to your children is a great way to enhance your study of history in a context that is engaging and enjoyable for all age groups. And as your kids approach the high school years, there is such a wide variety of excellent historical literature to create a delightful study of history without the boring drag of textbooks.
Our Favorite Historical Fiction World War II Book Reviews
We tend to focus on specific historical time periods in our homeschool and the historical fiction associated with the time surrounding and leading up to World War II carry much interest with my gang. We’ve read some great historical fiction over the years and I’d like to share some of our favorites with your today.
Twenty and Ten was a quick and enjoyable read and we especially loved the surprise ending. This book is a nice entre into World War II era as it can be a delicate subject for your younger listeners.
Rated: 4 stars by all.
Another great read aloud was Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. Set in Norway, it was fast paced and compelling throughout. We really liked the ending and I won’t spoil it here, we checked out ours from the library. Excellent for all ages.
Rated: 4 stars.
The Winged Watchman was by far our favorite so far. If you’ve read any of Hilda von Stockum, you cannot miss this one. It is beautifully written and gives some lovely descriptions of the Holland countryside and what life was like in the wind mills during the Nazi occupation. So many good parts wrapped up in a nice read aloud package. Highly recommended for it’s read aloud quality!
Rated: 5 stars.
The Small War of Sargent Donkey, starts out a bit slowly but once you get going, you won’t want to put it down. The writing style of Maureen Daly is enjoyable. Not to be missed.
Rated 4 stars.
Enemy Brothers is a very exciting book better suited for children a bit older, say 12 and up.
Rated 5 stars by all my older kids.
A few other books to mention include some books from the Dear America Series and Girls of Many Lands books:
- Surviving the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards
- When Christmas Comes Again: The WWI Diary of Simone Spencer
- Kathleen and the Celtic Knot (Ireland, 1937)
- My Secret War: The WWII Diary of Madeleine Beck
And these:
- Rilla of Ingleside by LM Montgomery (WW I)
- Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (WW II)
- Blue Willow by Doris Gates (Depression)
- The Silver Sword (originally titled Escape from Warsaw) by Ian Serallier
- The Endless Steppe
Other Historical Fiction we Have Enjoyed:
- The Mitchell’s Five for Victory by Hilda von Stockum
- TheNumber the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Sun Slower Sun Faster by Meriol Trevor
- The Borrowed House (great for High School)
- The Diary of Anne Frank (read aloud with caution in certain parts)
What are you reading for history with your kids right now?
Meredith Henning, veteran homeschooler of 16+ years, spends her days amongst the chaos of her "fab four" children, including two kiddos already graduated and off to college and two more boys, in middle school and the other a freshman in high school. She is the author of Homeschooling High School It's Not As Hard As You Think and writes about homeschooling, books and the sweet life she shares learning along with her family at Sweetness-n-Light.
Thank you for this list, book marking it for when we get to WWII.
You are so welcome Melissa, it’s a great time period with so much to read – these are definitely favorites here especially for the younger set 🙂 Enjoy!!