Teen Military Fiction

In the young readers’ edition of his New York Times best-selling book, Fox News anchor Bret Baier examines the historic transition and Eisenhower’s last chance to lead the country he loved through his legendary farewell address and his personal appeals to Kennedy. Baier paints a vivid picture of the contrasts between old and new at the beginning of a decisive decade in American history. Eisenhower and Kennedy were very different men.

Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson brings her signature action-packed narrative style to one of the most crucial battles of WWII. The WWII invasion known as D-Day was the largest military endeavor in history. By June 6, 1944, Hitler and his allies had a strong grip on the European continent, where Nazi Germany was engaged in the mass extermination of the Jewish people. The goal of D-Day was the total defeat of Hitler's regime and the defense of free democracies everywhere. Knowing they had to breach the French coast, the US, Great Britain, and Canada planned for the impossible.

As part of an elite team of Marines, Craig Grossi was sent on his most dangerous assignment to the Sangin District of Afghanistan. He expected to face harsh conditions and violence from Taliban fighters.

Through historical newspaper accounts and the personal letters of soldiers, the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself are stunningly recreated. You will enter the mind of Robert E. Lee as he makes the fateful decision to cross the Potomac River and take the offensive. You will feel the frustration of Abraham Lincoln as he struggles to convince George McClellan to fight. And you will stand side-by-side with foot soldiers as the peaceful Maryland countryside explodes.

In compelling poetry, the spirits of Frederick Douglas, John Brown, and William Tecumseh Sherman come alive. So does the heart-rending tale of a Confederate son and Union father, the desperate struggle of boys fighting like men, the horrifying shrieks of the wounded, and the pitiful plight of a toil-weary slave. One poetic letter finds distraught parents aching for a son who hasn’t been heard from in months. Another spotlights a wounded lad languishing in a POW camp, determined to survive his living nightmare.

Recruited by the US Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than 10,000 women served as codebreakers during World War II. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, best-selling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

This young readers’ edition from New York Times best-selling author and Fox News anchor Bret Baier dives into the first of the secret World War II meetings between President Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, which would shape the world for decades to come.

Cambridge professor and renowned historian Anthony Pagden covers a vast subject in a compact package with Peoples and Empires. This wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating work examines the origins and history of the West with terse, efficient prose. With a captivating narration by Robert O'Keefe, listeners will find this work enjoyable and utterly absorbing.

This full-cast radio drama tells the inspiring true story of the Hübener Group: Three teenagers in Nazi Germany, who risked everything to defy Hitler.

In 1861, 16-year-old Joe Roberts leads a mundane life as far as he's concerned. His world spins in the same circle each day: working at his family's store, taking his sisters on boyish escapades, and bickering with his rogue of a cousin, Lucas. Joe can't understand why his mother allows Lucas to live and work with them after all the pain he caused their family. When war is declared, Joe is quick to join up and become a soldier with the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers, but war is nothing like he imagined.

Edgar Award-winning author Frances O'Roark Dowell is acclaimed for the rich characterizations in her poignant coming-of-age novels. Drawing on her experience as a colonel's daughter, Dowell delivers an evocative portrait of a 12-year-old girl whose view of life, war, and her dad - Fort Hood's base commander - changes as her corpsman brother sends home haunting images from Vietnam. An eloquent narration captures the emotional intensity of the novel's gripping prose.

On Gabriel's 12th birthday, he gets a new bike - and is so excited that he accidentally rides it right into the path of a car. Fortunately, a Black man named Meriwether pushes him out of the way just in time, and fixes his damaged bike. As a thank you, Gabriel gets him a job at his dad's auto shop. Gabriel's dad hires him with some hesitation, however, anticipating trouble with the other mechanic, who makes no secret of his racist opinions. Gabriel and Meriwether become friends, and Gabriel learns that Meriwether drove a tank in the Army's all-Black 761st Tank Battalion in WWII.

Before Pam's father left to fight in World War I, the two of them trained their pigeons to fly home at night, a time when most birds just want to sleep. This interests a stranger with a foreign accent who comes to town and offers to pay a lot of money for Pam's birds. But when Pam refuses to sell and some of her birds are later stolen, she suspects the stranger may be more than a simple bird enthusiast. He may be an enemy spy!

Nonfiction master Russell Freedman illuminates for young readers the complex and rarely discussed subject of World War I. The tangled relationships and alliances of many nations, the introduction of modern weaponry, and top-level military decisions that resulted in thousands upon thousands of casualties all contributed to the “great war”, which people hoped and believed would be the only conflict of its kind.

‘The sky split open. A sky of brilliant yellow light; a world of noise that filled his ears like sand at the seaside, so that afterwards there was only total silence’. But silence brings terror and grief to Sonny’s family as they come to terms with the loss of his mother in a German bombing raid. In a fit of anguish and grief, his father joins the RAF to avenge her death, and Sonny is left alone. As he fights for survival, Sonny embarks on his own dramatic and intensely personal confrontation with the enemy….

Tři roky a osm měsíců žije devítiletý Felix Salinger v odlehlém katolickém sirotčinci v horách, ačkoli není katolického vyznání. Jeho rodiče nejsou mrtví. Přivedli ho k matce Mince, představené jeptišek, aby se měl dobře. A určitě si pro něj brzy přijdou, jak Felix věří, jen co vyřeší potíže, které mají se svým knihkupectvím. Protože židovští knihkupci to mají v Polsku roku 1942 těžké. Jak moc těžké, to Felix pochopí, až když se v sirotčinci objeví muži s podivnými páskami na rukávech a začnou vyhazovat a pálit židovské knihy z místní knihovny.

Aisha, an orphaned youth from the streets of Baghdad during the Middle Ages, seeks to raise herself from the poverty and squalor that surrounds her. Fleeing her unknown past, and her petty life of crime, the young Persian ventures off to Egypt, where she’s approached by a man who claims to belong to a secret sect of assassins. After the convenience of free food and shelter ceded importance to the heaviness of the dark acts being asked of her, Aisha tries to escape The Order of the Hashashin. But Aisha’s story was more intertwined with The Order’s than was initially apparent.

Battles happen because of a clash in opinions, beliefs, and political interests. Let's take a look at some of the most unforgettable battles in world history.

Gary Paulsen introduces listeners to Charley Goddard in his latest novel, Soldier's Heart. Charley goes to war a boy, and returns a changed man, crippled by what he has seen. In this captivating tale Paulsen vividly shows listeners the turmoil of war through one boy's eyes and one boy's heart, and gives a voice to all the anonymous young men who fought in the Civil War.

Bull Run was the site of the first battle of the Civil War. This book creates an intimate tapestry of stories from blacks and whites, adults and children, leaders and families from the North and South. Broken dreams and bloodshed take you back to the front lines of the Battle of Bull Run.