The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Zusak, Markus. (2006) The Book Thief. NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers.
ISBN: 978-0375831003
Awards: Ena Noel Award (2006)
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (2006)Kathleen Mitchell Award
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2007)
Book Sense Book of the Year (2007 Children's Literature Winner)
Printz Honor (2007)
Sydney Taylor Book Award (2007)
Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (2007)
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (2006)
Whitcoulls top 100, (2008)
ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2009 Death and Dying)
ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (2009.3|Literature & Language Arts, 2009)Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (Jugendjury, 2009)
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2006)
Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award Nominee (2010)
Book Sense Summer Pick Teen Readers (2006)
National Jewish Book Award (Children's and Young Adults' Literature, 2006)
Whitcoulls top 100, (2010)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Foster Children, War, Loss, Independence, Love, Hope
Annotation: It is 1939 in Nazi Germany and Death himself recounts the story of young Liesel as she comes of age. This is a tale as gruesome as war and loss, but also of hope and the love of words, books, and stories.
Summary: Narrated by Death, Zusak's novel tells the story of Leisel Meminger, a foster girl living in Nazi Germany. Death shows us young Liesel as she develops a habit of stealing books, learns to read from her father, and writes a book with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
Opinion: Liesel’s interactions with her friends, the tight bond with her foster father, the strange understanding with the mayor’s wife, and the writing of her story with the hidden Jew will appeal to lovers of all genres. While definitely a historical novel, labeling it as such is a disservice and an understatement. Beautiful language, intense emotion, and subtle nuance create a story that will move all who read it.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter Dean. (1988). Fallen Angels. NY: Scholastic.
ISBN: 978-0590409438
Awards: Coretta Scott King Award (1989)
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (1988)
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (1989)
ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (1998)
ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: History, Reality of War, Racism, Human Capacity for Love and Evil
Genre: Historical Fiction
Annotation: Richie joins the army with the belief that battle is heroic and that he is going to be a part of a rational effort that depends on skill. What he finds in Vietnam; however, is chaos, violence, fear, and death.
Summary: Richie Perry is a seventeen-year-old black kid from Harlem who travels to Vietnam to fight in the U.S. Army. He joins the army to earn money to provide for his younger brother, Kenny, but also to escape from his hard life in Harlem. All of Richie's beliefs about war are challenged, and then shattered as he makes his way through the chaos, violence, death, and fear that are the realities of war.
Evaluation: While hard to read at times, the self reflection and honest (if not terrible) emotions depict war with a necessarily harsh truthfulness. Richie's struggles to deal with racism and to comprehend the craziness of war will stay with readers for a long time.