Children's books with a Jewish theme: Young adult
This guide lists children's books and young adult literature in Cubberley Education Library featuring Jewish lands, people, and culture.
Young adult
The city beautiful by Aden Polydoros
Publication Date: 2021Ages 13 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Death lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together.
2016-2018
Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3575 .O43 M36 2018Lexile 790L; Ages 15 and up.
It's 1942 in Poland, and the world is coming to pieces. At least that's how it seems to Chaim and Gittel, twins whose lives feel like a fairy tale torn apart, with evil witches, forbidden forests, and dangerous ovens looming on the horizon. But in all darkness there is light, and the twins find it through Chaim's poetry and the love they have for each other.The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe; Lilit Thwaites (Trans.)
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PQ6709 .T84 B5313 2017Lexile measure 940; Ages 13 and up; Gr.8 and up; Sydney Taylor Book Award winner, 2018.
Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.Flying Couch by Amy Kurzweil (Illustrator)
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PN6727 .K879 Z46 2016Flying Couch, Amy Kurzweil's debut, tells the stories of three unforgettable women. Amy weaves her own coming-of-age as a young Jewish artist into the narrative of her mother, a psychologist, and Bubbe, her grandmother, a World War II survivor who escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto by disguising herself as a gentile.
2011-2015
Unlikely Warrior by Georg Rauch
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » DS135 .A93 R388 2015Lexile measure 1040L; Ages 12-18; Gr.9-12.
As a young adult in wartime Vienna, Georg Rauch helped his mother hide dozens of Jews from the Gestapo behind false walls in their top-floor apartment and arrange for their safe transport out of the country. His family was among the few who worked underground to resist Nazi rule. Then came the day he was drafted into Hitler's army and shipped out to fight on the Eastern front as part of the German infantry--in spite of his having confessed his own Jewish ancestry.The War Within These Walls by Aline Sax; Caryl Strzelecki (Illustrator); Laura Watkinson
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PT6467.29 .A95 K5913 2013Lexile measure HL510; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9-12.
It's World War II, and Misha's family, like the rest of the Jews living in Warsaw, has been moved by the Nazis into a single crowded ghetto. Heavily illustrated with sober blue-and-white drawings, this powerful novel dramatically captures the brutal reality of a tragic historical event.My Family for the War by Anne G. Voorhoere; Anne C. Voorhoeve
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PT2724 .O6 L5813 2012Lexile measure 900; Reading level 6.2; Ages 12-18; Gr.7-12; Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2013.
Before the start of World War II, ten-year-old Ziska Mangold, who has Jewish ancestors but has been raised as a Protestant, is taken out of Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains, to live in London with a Jewish family, where she learns about Judaism and endures the hardships of war while attempting to keep in touch with her parents, who are trying to survive in Holland.
Before 2011
Orchards by Holly Thompson
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3620 .H667 O73 2011Ages 12 and up; Gr.8 and up.
After a classmate commits suicide, Kana Goldberg--a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American--wonders who is responsible. She and her cliquey friends said some thoughtless things to the girl. Hoping that Kana will reflect on her behavior, her parents pack her off to her mother's ancestral home in Japan for the summer.Annexed by Sharon Dogar
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PR6104 .O43 A8 2010Ages 13-18; Historical fiction, gr. 8-12.
Everyone knows about Anne Frank and her life hidden in the secret annex - but what about the boy who was also trapped there with her? In this powerful and gripping novel, Sharon Dogar explores what this might have been like from Peter's point of view. What was it like to be forced into hiding with Anne Frank, first to hate her and then to find yourself falling in love with her?The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3618 .E564555 T49 2010Lexile measure 650; Ages 14- adult; Book level 4; Gr. 9-12.
Although they have never gotten along well, seventeen-year-old Levi follows his older brother Boaz, an ex-Marine, on a walking trip from Boston to Washington, D.C. in hopes of learning why Boaz is completely withdrawn.An Unspeakable Crime by Elaine Marie Alphin
Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » HV6534 .A7 A57 2010Lexile measure 1210; Ages 12-18; book level 8.8; gr. 8-12.
In 1913, thirteen-year-old pencil factory worker Mary Phagan was found murdered at her workplace in Atlanta, Georgia. One targeted suspect was Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank. All of the inborn prejudice against Jews rose up in a feeling of satisfaction, that here would be a victim worthy to pay for the crime.
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