VOICES FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Firsthand accounts of World War II, many collected by modern children.

Though the second world war has been over for more than 70 years, its wide scope still comes most to life in the stories of those who lived through it. The British children’s newspaper First News began collecting these accounts; published here along with others, they offer a comprehensive picture of the war, from soldiers, civilians, and children on all sides, both Allied and Axis. Perhaps due to its British origins, the preponderance of contributions are British, and the war in the European theater dominates, but the African campaign and the war in the Pacific are covered. Resistance efforts and the experiences of women during the war are each covered in separate chapters. The white American navigator of the Enola Gay recounts what it was like to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, while a Japanese man tells what it was like to be an 8-year-old boy in the city that morning. Because children conduct the interviews, most of the short accounts are honest but not brutally graphic. Vintage photographs illustrate every page, and indexes and a glossary allow the book to be used as a true reference resource.

A fine tool for any child interested in history as well as for classroom, school, and public libraries.