A wartime classic from two legends of children's literature! When John McCrae wrote his famous poem "In Flanders Field" among the trenches of war-torn Belgium, neither he nor a local village girl who saves a discarded draft of it could know what enormous power that poem would have on generations to come.

It's 1945, and the world is in the grip of war. Hideki lives with his family on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. When WWII crashes onto his shores, Hideki is drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed a grenade and a set of instructions: Don't come back until you've killed an American soldier.

Ray, a young American Marine, has just landed on Okinawa. This is Ray's first-ever battle, and he doesn't know what to expect–or if he'll make it out alive. He just knows that the enemy is everywhere, with ambushes and dangerous traps. But then the two of them collide in the middle of the battle...and choices they make in that single instant will change everything.

Alan Gratz, New York Times best-selling author of Refugee, returns with this high-octane story of how fear and war tear us apart, but how hope and redemption tie us together.

The True Story of a Girl who Survived the Holocaust with help from Oskar Schindler.

Rena Finder was only eleven when the Nazis forced her and other Jewish people into the ghetto in Krakow, Poland, during WWII. Then, Rena and her mother were taken to a work camp. By chance, they found jobs in the factory of a German man named Oskar Schindler.

Still, Rena was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. It was Schindler and his wife who would ultimately help her escape.

Who knew our soldiers had such a variety of animal companions in the two world wars?

Apart from the ‘beasts of burden’ that one might expect, such as horses, mules, donkeys and camels, many battalions had mascots as well: kangaroos, monkeys, dogs, chickens, tortoises, cats… all of whom provided comfort, companionship and a welcome distraction from the war.

Inspired by the extraordinary works of Australian artists painting the First World War as it happened around them, this evocative book commemorates and explores the sacrifice of the soldiers, nurses who served and the families at home waiting for their return. Illustrator Simon O’Carrigan has worked with war museum collections to curate, collate and recreate the original art to produce heartbreaking illustrations in this one-of-a-kind Anzac book. 

Lying  about his age, and looking for adventure, 14-year-old Victor March enlists in the 10th Battalion of the AIF to fight in the Great War. Victor and his new mates, Fish, Needle and Robbo, are headed for the Gallipoli peninsula and into battle. He is among the first soldiers to land at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and the world as he knows it is about to change. In his diary, Victor records the horrors of war, his friendships, his  fears and the story of Australia’s most legendary military campaign. 

On 11 November 1918, after four years of fighting, the Allied powers signed an agreement with Germany to end the Great War and to begin peace negotiations. The armistice, as it was known, took effect from the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. But it would be more than seven months before the Versailles Peace Treaty peace would finally be signed and peace declared on 28 June 1919.

For the war-weary soldiers who had fought in the trenches of Europe and the Middle East, the Great War was over. But the world as they had known it was changed forever. In this book many voices recall the day the fighting stopped, and the months that followed before peace rang out around the world.

Stories of hope, joy, resignation, loss and despair are told through the eyes of many different participants, including the war-wounded Adolf Hitler who vows to avenge the enemies of Germany; a young French girl who returns to find her house in ruins; and the German lawyer who sees the devastation of northern France for the first time on his way to Versailles.

Direct accounts from real participants such as 33rd President of the United States, Harry S Truman on the Western Front, World War 1 German fighter pilot ace, Herman Goring, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Supreme Allied Commander, Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch, mingle with factually-based descriptions from a host of characters, including a starving victim of the German Blockade; an angry French War veteran waiting for news of the peace negotiations; and a young girl celebrating the declaration of peace at Versailles on 28 June 1919.

The rich panoply of voices in Ruth Starke's text offers students a broad understanding of the armistice and the deep anxieties that underpinned the 1919 Peace Treaty negotiations and the future of peace in Europe and beyond. David Kennett’s arresting illustrations, with their strong compositions and dynamic use of perspective, capture the drama and tension of this tumultuous time in history and invite readers to enter into the story of one of the most significant events of the 20th century.

It’s been a disastrous day. The radio news reports that HMAS Canberra has been sunk with the loss of 819 lives and Kokoda has been lost by the Australians. Who knows where Des’s lot are? Somewhere on the mountain track between Kokoda and Port Moresby with the Japs hot on their heels.

Harold couldn’t say too much in his latest letter, but it sounds like his division is moving to New Guinea too. In his diary, Archie records his own battles at home, against the local bully, Beefy; and how Townsville copes as it becomes a base for the Pacific campaign; and the Australian east coast reels under Japanese bombs. Archie’s two brothers are fighting in the battlefields of World War II. Des has been sent with the militia to fight in the treacherous landscape of the jungles of New Guinea against the Japanese–and his brother Harold is about to join him, after surviving the campaign in the Middle East.

There is nothing between Australia and a Japanese invasion except a small band of brave soldiers, fighting rain, mud, malaria and machine guns.

It is 1940, and 16-year-old Peter Fullerton and his best mate Tony Cantonelli lie about their age to enlist in the army. Tony also lies about his surname–Australia is at war with Italy, and suspicion has been added to the racism he already encounters.

Heroes of Tobruk follows these characters from the outbreak of war, through military training to the Siege of Tobruk. Meticulously researched, it combines historical detail and factual information about World War II with a very powerful personal story.

The True Stories of Jewish Children who Fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport
Through the moving and often heart-wrenching personal accounts of Kindertransport survivors, critically acclaimed and award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson paints the timely and devastating story of how the rise of Hitler and the Nazis tore apart the lives of so many families—and what they were forced to give up in order to escape.

At 15, Lene is questioning everything. She is sick of the compulsory League of German Girls' meetings, and everyone being made to fight for a final victory that never seems to come. She is in love with Ludwig who lives upstairs and listens to enemy broadcasts. Like Lene, he rejects the war and the endless Nazi indoctrination. But he has caught the attention of his ruthless Hitler Youth squad leader, Kurt. Unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, Lene has to watch every step, every word to protect those she loves. When Ludwig is ordered to the Eastern Front, can Lene and Ludwig hold on to their promise to one another and resurface from the darkness of the abyss in post-war Berlin?