Dawn of Fear
10 best books like Dawn of Fear (Susan Cooper): World War II London Blitz Diary, Volume 1, When the Sirens Wailed, Bluebirds, Absolute Zero: Being the Second Part of the Bagthorpe Saga, Old Peter's Russian Tales, Frontier Wolf, Beat the Turtle Drum, Thunderwith, The Bailey Game, The Prime Minister's Brain
World War II London Blitz Diary, Volume 1
While hundreds of Messerschmitt war planes fly overhead and the sound of hundreds of bombs exploding, Ruby Side
Thompson’s writes her personal during the terrifying World War Two London Blitz. Her diary is a true and detailed account of what she experienced during that horrific time. The diary...
| Author | Noel Streatfeild |
| ISBN | 0394831470 |
It is 1939, and the Clark family (Nobby and Rosie, and the children Laura, Andy and Tim) lives in South London. Although they are poor - and often hungry - they have a happy home.
There is talk that there may be a war with the Germans, and one Saturday morning the children are taken to the Town Hall...
| Author | Margaret Mayhew |
| ISBN | 0552152439 |
1939 - And in the back of a three-ton lorry, a strangely assorted group of young women bumped over the road to RAF Colston. They were the first of the WAAFs.
Barmaids mixed with secretaries and debutantes. They had appalling living quarters and no uniforms. And, worst of all, the Station Commander,...
| Author | Helen Cresswell |
| ISBN | 0027255506 |
Bad, mad and brilliant to know - the Bagthorpes are back! Something even stranger than normal is happening in the Bagsthorpe house. Ever since Uncle Parker won a luxury cruise, they've alll gone competition crazy. There isn't an unfilled entry form to be found and they're scrawling "winning" slogans...
| Author | Arthur Ransome |
| ISBN | 1903252164 |
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important,...
| Author | Rosemary Sutcliff |
| ISBN | 0140314725 |
A.D. 349
Alexios Flavius Aquila is an excellent swordsman but an immature military leader. A disastrous decision nearly gets him discharged from the Roman army, but his high-ranking uncle begrudgingly pulls some strings, and well-meaning-but-inept Alexios is transferred instead.
The...
| Author | Constance C. Greene |
| ISBN | 0140368507 |
Beautiful story. But quite upsetting.
Realistic YA Fiction.
Also a movie.
The plot concerns a family, with two sisters, Cate and Joss. They are more then sisters but also best friends.
One day, Joss, the younger sister is killed in a tragic accident., shattering...
| Author | Libby Hathorn |
| ISBN | 0340739886 |
Lara feels completely alone after the death of her mother. She is an intruder in her father's new family, living far away from all that has been familiar. How can she find acceptance and love in this harsh place? Will the hostile Gladwyn and her kids ever really allow Lara to be part of the family she so longs...
Even if she doesn't believe in the ghost of Michael Bailey, Alex Lewis is still haunted by the memory of the terrifying incident that took place two years ago, and by the fact that she too played the vicious game which led to it - the Bailey Game. And all it takes for the game to start again is the arrival of a...
| Author | Gillian Cross |
| ISBN | 0140323120 |
Three and a half stars from me!
The Prime Minister's Brain, first published in 1985 by Puffin Books is another of our Kid-Lit books with a bit of history behind it. It's the follow up to The Demon Headmaster which Chrissi and I reviewed in our Kid Lit challenge last year and was also one of our favourite...
| Author | Henry Treece |
| ISBN | 0875991173 |
Harald and his father Sigurd were vikings. Their king died, so they planned to go 'a viking' (on a voyage) to seek riches and treasure. They joined a crew by the coast and helped prepare the ship - Nameless. Unfortunately, whilst pushing the boat into the sea, Sigurd slipped and his leg was brocken under...
| Author | Robert Westall |
| ISBN | 1405200898 |
When one of my favourite teachers recommended this book to me, she said that Westall's writing style was like Michael Morpurgo's, only better. And I have to say, I completely agree with that after finishing this novel.
The novel is set during the Second World War, and follows Harry as his house...
| Author | Deborah Burrows |
| ISBN | 1785036041 |
On duty during London's Blitz...
As death and destruction fall from the skies day after day in the London Blitz, Australian ambulance driver, Lily Brennan, confronts the horror with bravery, intelligence, common sense and humour.
Although she must rely upon her colleagues to...
Love and War in the Apennines
| Author | Eric Newby |
| ISBN | 0864427654 |
Like most of Eric Newby's writing, this book is excellent. It is his story after the Italian Armistice when POWs were released into the local area. Newby had been captured in a failed raid with the SBS, and by bad luck had broken his ankle a few days before release.
More than anything the story he...
John Tunis vividly imagines the drama of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkerque Sergeant Edward Williams of the Second Battalion was among the first British troops to land in France, just across the English Channel from his family in Dover, after the declaration of war...
The Mystery That Never Was
| Author | Enid Blyton |
| ISBN | 0006921507 |
Nick and Katie and their neighbours, Mike and Penny, are enjoying the end of the summer holidays. When Uncle Bob comes to stay for a rest, he seems a bit bored without his exciting private investigator's job to do, so the children invent a mystery for him to solve.
But life soon becomes very exciting...
| Author | Sara Hoagland Hunter |
| ISBN | 0873586387 |
This is a wonderful tale that explains the legacy of the Navajo Code Talkers, but in a way that is conversational and easy to understand for children. The story is told as part of a conversation between and grandfather (who was a code talker) and his grandson. While the back story is not entirely necessary,...
The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War
| Author | Lara Feigel |
| ISBN | 1608199843 |
'The nightly routine of sirens, barrage, the probing raider, the unmistakable engine ... the bomb-bursts moving nearer and then moving away, hold one like a love-charm' --Graham Greene
When the first bombs fell on London in August 1940, the city was transformed overnight into a strange kind...
| Author | Lydia Syson |
| ISBN | 1471400530 |
It’s July 1940 on the south coast of England. A plane crash-lands in the marsh, and sixteen-year-old Peggy finds its broken pilot—a young Polish airman named Henryk. Afraid and unwilling to return to the fight, Henryk needs a place to hide, and Peggy helps him find his way to a remote, abandoned church.
Meanwhile,...
Germany: A History is a decent overview of mostly the political history of the Germanies leading up to Germany, describing a period of about 2,000 years in central Europe.
A work like this is mostly introductory, which is fine. The greatest commentary involves the time period of Charlemagne,...
France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944
| Author | Julian T. Jackson |
| ISBN | 0199254575 |
This is the first comprehensive study of the German occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. The author examines the nature and extent of collaboration and resistance, different experiences of Occupation, the persecution of the Jews, intellectual and cultural life under Occupation, and the...
