The kids might be all right, after all. Anyone want to guess what topic grows popular among those in junior high? The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday:
An auditorium of eager kids in Washington, Okla., were on the edge of their seats a few weeks ago as author Jennifer A. Nielsen told them about Lidia Durr Zakrzewski, a teenager who joined the Polish resistance during World War II. She served as the real-life model for the young heroine in Nielsen’s 2024 novel “Uprising.” To the middle-grade audience, Nielsen was akin to a rock star, and she is a bit of one in the publishing world too. The types of books she often writes—historical novels about bombings, spies and young resistance fighters in World War II—have become some of the hottest novels with young readers starting around age 8. Scholastic, one of the country’s leading children’s book publishers, is asking agents for more World War II fiction, even as the rest of the kids’ fiction market stagnates. At its book fairs, the publisher sees elementary and middle-school students darting over to the WWII bookcases, nabbing titles before they sell out. Books by authors like Nielsen and Alan Gratz have hit bestseller lists. With tales of heroism and spycraft, battle scenes and bravery, Gratz and a coterie of other writers have tapped into many of the same themes that draw kids to the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series. Instead of dragons, wizards and gods, there are Nazis and young resistance fighters.
In Nielsen’s thriller “Rescue,” 12-year-old Meg Kenyon becomes part of a dangerous mission through Nazi-occupied France. In Adam Gidwitz’s recent novel “Max in the Land of Lies,” 13-year-old Max Bretzfeld returns to Nazi Germany as a British spy. And in Alan Gratz’s “Heroes,” two friends live through the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. “There is insatiable interest,” said Aimee Friedman, an editorial director at Scholastic and editor of one of the genre’s top authors, Gratz. The publisher looks for hot new titles and genres at its school fairs, she said, and quickly saw that kids wanted more: “World War II books are at the top of the list.”.... The hardcover edition of “Refugee” spent more than 280 weeks on the New York Times’s children’s middle-grade bestseller list and today has nearly 1.6 million copies in print. Parents sometimes worry that the subject matter is too frightening for their kids, but advocates for the books say they provide a compelling opportunity to teach history. “I tell them that these books aren’t so dark that their kids can’t read them,” said Valerie Koehler, owner of the Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston. “For kids, it’s all about word-of-mouth,” said Sharon Hearn, founder of Children’s Book World in Los Angeles. Hot titles getting talked about include the 2024 book “The Bletchley Riddle,” by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin, about two siblings caught up in the drama of World War II....
Enjoy the rest of the article. My personal favorite was reading Snow Treasure when in fourth grade. It was a story about how a group of Norwegian school kids smuggled the country's gold under the noses of the Nazis. It's available on Amazon.
20 comments:
And yet we ask ourselves where do kids get some of the ideas we see them try out.
This history is fascinating. I am currently reading "Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins–and WWII Heroes" Unbelieveable courage.
"Parents sometimes worry that the subject matter is too frightening for their kids"
We've come a long way since elementary schools had drills to train kids what to do in the event of nuclear war. I went through that in the 70s, and I probably still have emotional scars from it.
I was about 10 when I decided that if the Russians dropped the bomb, I'd go outside and face it, because i wouldn't want to live in a post-nuclear-holocaust world. That sh*t was totally age-inappropriate.
Snowflake-ism is a terrible disease.
I too went through those drills and I am normal. Is enjoying pulling the legs off of spiders normal?
I went through these same drills and I was on the team that wrote Fallout 2.
Read the Trailblazers of America series, very inspiring!
https://www.prageru.com/trailblazers-books
"Snow Treasure" by Marie McSwigan.
"Parents sometimes worry that the subject matter is too frightening for their kids"
Children need to know the world in which they live is a dangerous one. I'm not saying to terrify them, but a little caution will go a long way.
As Europe transitions to war economies, the closer we get to the brink--the zeitgeist of World War will grow and grow and related interest will rise.
This is a good thing. Far too many eligible voters don’t read books.
Including influential people like Joe Rogan & Charlie Kirk.
Kids who are interested in WWII should watch the BBC series "Foyle's War". It's excellent.
Too bad so many adults, and especially older adults, have forgotten the lessons of WWII.
"This is a good thing. Far too many eligible voters don’t read books.
Including influential people like Joe Rogan & Charlie Kirk. "
Can you post some examples?
My suggestion is to read an age appropriate bio of FDR as War President. Leadership at its highest level. My Mother was born in 1921. She died in 2020 and to her last days she would tell me about the FDR Fireside Chats that rallied and encouraged our nation to join together and defeat tyranny. I am getting misty-eyed thinking about it even now.
2:34 - Joe & Charlie are both college dropouts (Joe has one whole semester,) and both are complete ignoramuses when it comes to history.
Here’s one example off the top of my head.
Joe had author Annie Jacobsen on to talk about her book on nuclear weapons.
He had NO CLUE what the “nuclear triad” is, i.e., America’s reliance on nuclear weapons from planes, missile silos, and submarines. The concept was totally foreign to him; I learned about it as a junior in high school. He was shocked.
Joe gets his knowledge from YouTube. He’s the stupid person’s idea of a smart person. Who else would have a standup comic (Dave Smith) on to discuss the Israel-Gaza war? They were both quite offended that historian Douglas Murray took Joe to task for platforming Hitler apologists & Holocaust deniers.
@12:58beither ignorant or trolling.
I learned about Steve Renella’s books and also S.C. Gwynne’s fantastic because Joe Rogan read both of them and liked them so much he invited the authors on JRE.
@2:34 examples of what? the books they haven’t read? you really got me there genius!
@5:27 - what books has Joe read to make him platform Holocaust deniers & people who think WiFi causes brain cancer?
Oh. Wait. If he’d read any history books, he’d be capable of thinking critically & realizing Winston Churchill WASN’T the villain of WW II.
But he’s just “asking questions,” and “really into free speech,” and “just talking to people.”
The Nazis butchered 8 million people, 6 million of whom were Jews. It isn’t up for debate.
Except for Joe Rogan fans.
Charlie Kirk seems pretty knowledgeable, especially with history and the bible.
As Mark Twain said "Don't let schooling interfere with your education."
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