Introducing War

War can bring out the best and worst in people. It can create opportunities to create and invent. And it destroys lives and countries.

Although wars can be fought miles and miles away, the impact can be felt any where. The impact on a family if a loved one doesn’t return or, many times, if they do. Those who leave for war never return – their body may do, but their inner-self will be forever changed.

These books – both fiction and non-fiction – look at many aspects of war – and many different wars through history:

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Ghosts of war: the true story of a 19-year-old GI by Ryan Smithson

Red moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells

Disguised: a wartime memoir by Rita la Fontaine de Clercq Zub

Red leader down by Ken Catran

Wheels of war by Sally Prue

When the Hipchicks went to war by Pamela Rushby

Match of death by James Riordan

The bite of the mango by Mariatu Kamara

The Winter War by William Durbin

Emil and Karl by Yankev Glatshteyn; translated by Jeffrey Shandler

Crusade by Elizabeth Laird

Anya's war by Andrea Alban

An innocent soldier by Josef Holub; translated by Michael Hofmann

Kipling's choice by Geert Spillebeen; translated by Terese Edelstein

Sweet clarinet by James Riordan

When my name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

Refugee boy by Benjamin Zephaniah

Gulf by Robert Westall

Mare's war by Tanita S. Davis

The disappeared by Gloria Whelan

When the war came home by Sarah Ell

Annie, between the states by L.M. Elliott

The Merrybegot by Julie Hearn

Badd by Tim Tharp

Resistance [graphic novel] bk 1 by Carla Jablonski; illustrated by Leland Purvis ; color by Hilary Sycamore

Tasting the sky: a Palestinian childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

The champion by Maurice Gee

Deogratias [graphic novel]: a tale of Rwanda by Stassen; translated by Alexis Siegel

The mangrove summer by Jack Lasenby

Hostage to war: a true story by Tatjana Wassiljewa

Dark hours by Gudrun Pausewang; translated by John Brownjohn

Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Useful fools by C.A. Schmidt

Child of dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji

The lost crown by Sarah Miller

When the guns fall silent, followed by War song by James Riordan

The book of the lion by Michael Cadnum

In the shadow of the lamp by Susanne Dunlap

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Tamar by Mal Peet

Blood red, snow white by Marcus Sedgwick

Kensuke's kingdom by Michael Morpurgo; with illustrations by Michael Foreman New Zealand author Ken Catran follows a fictional family through generations and wars:

Jacko Moran: sniper

Robert Moran: private

Jimmy Moran: regular

Teresa Moran, solider