Explore the iconic Canadian war poem, In Flanders Fields, in some of the many languages spoken in Canada today.
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Here are a few ARHS World War II historical fiction titles. Written for a high school audience, these books provide a meaningful context for Remembrance Day reflection.
“Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life--until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along, hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?” -Publisher
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
"Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends. But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in 'Verity's' own words, as she writes her account for her captors." -Publisher
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
“When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.” -Publisher
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
“Set in Poland during World War II. Innocent and naive 8-year-old Bruno is bored and restless in his new home. Ignoring his mother, he sets off on an adventure in the woods. He comes across a high fence which separates him from the people he can see through it. Soon he meets a young boy in striped pajamas, and a surprising friendship develops.” -WorldCat
The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
“Sixteen-year-old Catholic Stefania Podgórska has worked in the Diamant family's grocery store for four years, even falling in love with one of their sons, Izio. When the Nazis came to Przemsyl, Poland, the Jewish Diamants were forced into the ghetto (and worse) and only Izio's brother Max managed to escape. Stefania embarks on a dangerous course: protecting thirteen Jews in her attic, caring for her younger sister, Helena, and keeping everything secret from the two Nazi officers who are living in her house.” -WorldCat
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Check out this video regarding Canada’s No. 2 Construction Battalion from the First World War. This group of men served our country with pride, despite the prejudice they faced on the battlefield.
Check out Charles “Checker” Tomkins’ story. As a code talker in the Canadian military, he used his knowledge of the native Cree language to help develop a top-secret communication system to defeat the Germans.
14 Facts You May Not Know About Contributions of Indigenous Veterans
Canadian women share stories of their secret efforts to help win World War II
