Category Archives: Representation

Alice on the Island by Mayumi Shimose Poe

In 1941, thirteen-year-old Alice’s days are filled with swimming in the Hawaiian sea, going to school, and helping watch her younger siblings. But on December 7, everything changes when she experiences an act of war, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As the United States enters World War II, Alice’s father is sent to a Japanese internment camp, leaving Alice and the rest of her family struggling to adjust to life without him.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism
  • Parent in Japanese internment camp
  • World War II (theme) & the bombing of Pearl Harbour (on-page)

The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

It’s 1942. German Nazis occupy much of France. And twelve-year-old Miriam, who is Jewish, is not safe. With help and quick thinking, Miri is saved from the roundup that takes her entire Jewish neighborhood. She escapes Paris, landing in a small French village, where the spires of the famous Chateau de Chenonceau rise high into the sky, its bridge across the River Cher like a promise, a fairy tale. But Miri’s life is no fairy tale. Her parents are gone – maybe alive, maybe not. Taken in at the boarding school near the chateau, pretending to be Catholic to escape Nazi capture, Miri is called upon… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism & Nazism (theme), including physical beatings and setting houses on fire as a hate crime
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a husband discussed
  • Police brutality & violence (on-page)
  • World War II (theme) with mentions of concentration camps
  • St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre discussed

The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him. So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism and death of a secondary character’s grandmother in a concentration camp mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • World War II (theme), including plane crashes and bombings (on-page)
  • Animal death for food mentioned

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him. So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Minor slut-shaming
  • Physical child abuse & neglect, including starvation, captivity, and forcing a child to write righthanded by tying up their left arm (on-page)
  • Protagonist with clubfoot
  • World War II (theme), including plane crashes and bombings (on-page)

A Star Like Jesse Owens by Nikki Shannon Smith

Matthew is a young African-American boy who dreams of becoming an Olympic runner like his hero, Jesse Owens. There’s one big problem, though Matthew has asthma, which makes it hard for him to run. When his journalist father is assigned to cover the 1936 Olympics in Germany, Matthew jumps at the chance tag along. He has never been out of Ohio before, let alone to Europe. Will Owens’s amazing Olympic victories inspire Matthew in his own chosen career?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & antisemitism discussed
  • Asthma (protagonist)

Charlotte Spies for Justice by Nikki Shannon Smith

Twelve-year-old Charlotte lives on a plantation in Richmond, Virginia, where the American Civil War is raging. All around her, citizens and the Confederate army are fighting to protect slavery: the very thing Charlotte wishes would end. When she overhears the plantation owner conspiring against the Confederates, Charlotte knows she must join forces with her. Maybe together they can help the Union win the war and end slavery. Helping a spy is dangerous work, but Charlotte is willing to risk everything to fight for what is right!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & slavery (on-page)
  • Mentions of a dead body
  • American Civil War & prison camps

Lena and the Burning of Greenwood by Nikki Shannon Smith

In the early 1920s, the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the wealthiest Black community in the United States. But Tulsa is still a segregated city. “Black Wall Street” and white Tulsa are very much divided. Twelve-year-old Lena knows this, but she feels safe and sheltered from the racism in her successful, flourishing neighbourhood. That all changes when Dick Rowland, a young Black man from Greenwood, is accused of assaulting a white woman. Racial tensions boil over. Mobs of white citizens attack Greenwood… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & hate crimes, including the Tulsa Race Massacre (theme)

Sarah Journeys West by Nikki Shannon Smith

n the midst of the California Gold Rush, twelve-year-old Sarah and her family are living in the North as free Black people. Seeking a better life, Sarah’s parents decide they will venture west on the Oregon Trail. On the trail, Sarah and her family face all kinds of hardship, including racism, extreme weather, difficult terrain, and disease. But the journey will be worth it if they can find fortune in California. Will Sarah and her family endure the trail and make a new life out west?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & slavery
  • Cholera epidemic

Ann Fights for Freedom by Nikki Shannon Smith

Twelve-year-old Ann understands there is only one thing to be grateful for as a having her family together. But when the master falls into debt, he plans to sell both Ann and her younger brother to two different owners. Ann is convinced her family must run away on the Underground Railroad. Will Ann’s family survive the dangerous trip to their freedom in the North?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & slavery (theme)

Noelle at Sea by Nikki Shannon Smith

Thirteen-year-old Noelle feels like the luckiest girl in the world to be cruising the Atlantic aboard the famed Titanic. The trip is made even better by her new friend, Pauline, a girl who is traveling with her father to live in America. The girls spend the first days of the journey exploring, but on the fifth night, Noelle awakes to a sinking ship. Women and children will be rescued first, and Noelle realizes motherless Pauline will be left all alone. Despite her parents’ wishes, Noelle breaks away from her family to find and help her friend.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical racism & classism
  • Titanic tragedy (theme)