But, this is not to say the reader still doesn’t experience Manami’s fear, sorrow, love and anger. I did feel, however, the book’s one downside was that the threat from prison guards and crowded tensions in the barracks didn’t come across as well as they could have (making Manami’s life in camp seemingly a lot easier than I imagine it would have been). The story is based upon real events in these prison camps during WWII and, as I said, it is written with confidence and clarity. In this way, she gets by, makes a friendship with her young teacher and tries to remember what life was like before. She only draws, communicating just through her paintings. She does not talk anymore because of her shock. Everyone else around Manami seems to just about cope with their new incarceration, but she does not. This is a tragic, horrible moment and, from this point, we are catapulted into Manami’s distraught emotions of leaving her dog behind and we experience the life of a prison camp through these emotions. They are taken to a desert prison-village with thousands of other Japanese-Americans (most of whom are US citizens and wrongly imprisoned), but Manami’s little dog, Yujinn, is not allowed to go. The story centres around little Manami, and her family, as they are forced by soldiers to leave their home on the American Bainbridge Island, just after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

But, because Lois has been, it makes the story of Manami – a Japanese-American prisoner of war – all the more involving, easy to read and more powerful. (I have only listed a few YA books, but if you have a teenager, encourage them to read Maus by Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer prize-winning, critically acclaimed graphic novel.Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban is a beautiful little book is written with such brevity and precise wording that, on occasions, it’s hard to believe a writer could be so ruthless with their words.

Here are important children’s books about the Holocaust and World War II that will teach children more about this dark period in history. We need to keep these stories alive so we always remember and never, ever repeat this kind of horrible genocide again. How did this happen? And how can we make sure this never happens again. It’s estimated that over 6 million Jews were killed in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Not to mention, we need to remember that the horrors were perpetuated by regular people who become villains and monsters, turning on neighbors to follow a dangerous, hateful leader named Adolf Hilter. If we don’t understand the Holocaust and the genocide, we are doomed to repeat it. In order not to repeat the past, we must understand it. Children’s books about the Holocaust and World War II help kids understand the past through historical fiction and nonfiction stories because they immerse readers in the experiences of people who lived through it, whether fiction books or nonfiction books.