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Books about the Holocaust for children 12+ and teenagers

Here is a poignant booklist that should hopefully help explain and inform teenage readers about the events surrounding the Holocaust.

  • Maus

    by Art Spiegelman 

    2003 11 to 14 years 

    • Around the world
    • Graphic novels
    • Historical
    • Horror

    This is the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler’s Europe.

  • When the World Was Ours

    by Liz Kessler 

    2020 11 to 14 years 

    • Historical

    Elsa, Max, and Leo are three friends who live in Vienna – but as Hitler’s rise to power begins to cast a shadow over Europe, they find themselves torn in different directions. This moving and well researched book about the holocaust is only suitable for readers 12+.

  • The Earth is Singing

    by Vanessa Curtis 

    2015 11 to 14 years 

    • Around the world
    • Historical

    Based on true events, this first-person narrative tells the story of the Jews of Riga during World War II. Engaging, harrowing and thought-provoking, this is a story that should not be forgotten.

  • The Red Ribbon

    by Lucy Adlington 

    2017 11 to 14 years 

    • Adventure
    • Coming-of-age
    • Historical

    It’s Ella’s job in the camp, where everyone must either work or be killed, to make beautiful clothes for the wives of Nazi officers and female guards. The Red Ribbon is a moving story of friendship, kindness and heroism under impossible circumstances.

  • The Book Thief

    by Markus Zusak 

    2007 11 to 14 years 

    • Around the world
    • Classics
    • Historical

    A powerful story narrated by Death, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery

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