In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.
Code Name Verity
War
The Little Yellow Bottle
Marwa and Ahmad live in an unnamed country that could be any one of dozens touched by war. Ahmad is the star goalie of the soccer team, and Marwa is his best friend. While they know that there is a war going on, life in their village goes on largely as normal.
Marwa is the narrator of the story and she describes how one day planes fly over their village “like a cloud of angry wasps.” The children are warned that these planes dropped bombs, but after being frightened for a few days, they forget the danger. Until a day when Marwa and Ahmad are playing and Ahmad finds a small yellow bottle. Out of curiosity, he picks it up. The bomb explodes, injuring them both. Marwa describes the aftermath as she and Ahmad recover from their injuries and slowly regain hope. Written to honor the courage of children everywhere whose lives are touched by war.
War Brothers
Jacob, the son of a wealthy landowner, attends a Catholic school and expects to go to university. A good boy, he believes that his father and God will keep him safe from harm.
Oteka lost his parents to AIDS and lives in one of the many displacement camps that circle the city of Gulu. Alone in the world, upon the advice of a medicine man, he sets out for an unknown future.
Jacob and Oteka’s lives become entwined as they find themselves in the clutches of the Lord’s Resistance Army, forced to obey the strange and brutal rules of Joseph Kony’s henchmen. Marching endlessly through rough terrain with little food or water, the boys form a plan to make their escape. Will hope, friendship, courage, and resilience be enough to save them?
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 5, Issue 2
Vermonia #6: To the Pillar of Wind
When the Blue Star Warriors seek to infiltrate Uro’s fiercely guarded headquarters as they try to save the Pillar of Wind from destruction, Doug is captured by soldiers and Naomi and Fly are transported back to the planet of Blue Star, revealing the mysterious pathways connecting galaxies while exposing some of Uro’s weaknesses.
Dear Blue Sky
Shortly after Cass’s big brother is deployed to fight in Iraq, Cass becomes pen pals with an Iraqi girl who opens up her eyes to the effects of war.
The Bridge
The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside.
Nik is still in high school but is destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn’t chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik.
But Nik is on the run, with Sol’s sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he had never dared to ask.
The Bridge is a gritty adventure set in a future world where fear of outsiders pervades everything. A heart-stopping novel about friendship, identity, and courage from an exciting new voice in young-adult fiction.
The Assault
In the year 2030, six teens who have been modified to look like the aliens who are battling for control of Earth go behind enemy lines and discover a shocking, secret alien project.
Scrivener’s Moon
When she returns home after two years, Fever finds that her Scriven mother’s creation, New London, the city on wheels, is nearly complete and ready to fight the nomad tribes of Britain–and Fever must journey to the north to find the ancient birthplace of the Scriven mutants and solve the mystery of her own past.
The Fitzosbornes at War
In this third installment to the Montmaray Journals, Sophie and her family come together to support the war effort during World War I, meanwhile fighting to protect their beloved Montmaray.
Shadow
Author of War Horse, and bestselling storyteller Michael Morpurgo touched our hearts with this beautiful story of a boy, his lost dog, and the lengths he would go to be reunited. This timely story of battle-scarred Afghanistan delivers a masterful portrait of war, love, and friendship. With the horrors of war bearing down on them, Aman and his mother are barely surviving in an Afghan cave, and staying there any longer will end horribly. The only comfort Aman has is Shadow, the loyal spaniel that shows up from places unknown, it seems, just when Aman needs him most. Aman, his mother, and Shadow finally leave the destroyed cave in hopes of escaping to England, but are held at a checkpoint, and Shadow runs away after being shot at by the police. Aman and his mother escape–without Shadow. Aman is heart-broken. Just as they are getting settled as free citizens in England, they are imprisoned in a camp with locked doors and a barbed wire fence. Their only hope is Aman’s classmate Matt, his grandpa, and the dream of finding his lost dog. After all, you never lose your shadow.