Showing titles in Military & Wars

World War II has begun. Brigit has been evacuated to Wales from her home near the aeroplane factories of Coventry. But when it's revealed that her father is German, Brigit runs away to join her mother in a very special training camp, where Churchill is building a secret army of spies and saboteurs known as the Special Operations Executive. Brigit and her mother soon find themselves on the front line in Nazi-occupied France, where they search for double agents and meet with danger at every turn in their efforts to support the French resistance.

It’s September 1939 and Britain has just entered the Second World War. But in the small town of Golfodd there are no bombs, no soldiers and no machine guns. For Tom, Mary, Gary and Dil the whole thing is a disappointment. They want excitement. But they aren’t looking for trouble, so when they start shadowing the mysterious new woman in town, they don’t expect it to lead them down to the bottom of the old, rotten mines of Golfodd. Then things get dark and dangerous...

Emilia and Teo's lives change in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brings down the plane their stunt pilot mothers are flying. Teo's mother dies immediately, but Em's survives and is determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes - in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the colour of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.

Everyone knows Vikings are ruthless barbarians whose idea of a good time involves pillaging, plundering, and feasting. But Thorfinn is no ordinary Viking! He is always polite and happily offers to wash the dirty dishes. Too bad his dad is Harald the Skull-Splitter, Village Chief and the roughest and toughest Viking of them all. Indgar villagers are out watching an elk polo match, the village is attacked, and Thorfinn's mum goes missing, presumed kidnapped. Harald, Velda Thorfinn and his boisterous brothers chase the mysterious raiders across the North Sea towards Scotland.

Vulgar can't believe his luck. He's going on a school trip in a real, live longboat, with oars and everything! And they're going to visit Burp, where a long-ago battle once took place between the Vikings and the, er, Burpers. It was a mighty battle, which the Vikings totally lost. But this time, Vulgar's going to rewrite history. He's up for a bit of historical reenactment, and is sure, one way or another, that a great and noble victory will be his!

This book is part of the Against The Odds series, a captivating series of fictional—but inspired by true events—Hi-Lo chapter books tailored for striving listeners aged 10–14. Each title in this collection unravels the extraordinary experiences of young people overcoming incredible challenges. Whether it’s facing the unknown or triumphing against the odds, these stories are both riveting and inspiring.

He is the most prolific sniper in a long, deadly war. In fact, he succeeds to the point that his own comrades have learned to shun him. Not even this form of isolation can prevent him from compiling a frightful tally of numbers though. Behind each number, a face and a name. It's his job. He's good at it. Too damned good.

When Ada’s clubfoot is surgically fixed at last, she knows for certain that she’s not what her mother said she was—damaged, deranged, crippled mentally as well as physically. She’s not a daughter anymore, either. Who is she now? World War II rages on, and Ada and her brother, Jamie, move with their guardian, Susan, into a cottage with the iron-faced Lady Thorton and her daughter, Maggie. Life in the crowded home is tense. Then Ruth moves in. Ruth, a Jewish girl, from Germany.

When the Russian Army marches into East Prussia at the end of the Second World War, the Wolf family must flee. Liesl, Otto and their baby sister, Mia, find themselves lost and alone, in a blizzard, in the middle of a war zone. Liesl has promised Mama that she will keep her brother and sister safe. But sometimes, to survive, you have to do bad things. Dangerous things. Wild things. Sometimes to survive, you must become a wolf.

It's a deadly game of hide and seek. Liam Scott has joined Recce Platoon, and it looks like he will be heading for Somalia. His mission is to gather intelligence from behind enemy lines, carrying out top-secret surveillance and dead-letter drops. But he's new to the game and there's a lot to learn. Soon Liam is monitoring a den of Al Shabaab militants and hunting a key terrorist target. Can Recce Platoon find their man and get out undiscovered? If the militants find them first, it's game over...

Caleb knows that the decaying German bunker at Rocquaine Bay on his island of Guernsey is haunted. Samuel Vogel, his arch enemy at school, has told him. But when his Grandpa Bertie hands him a brass ring that could have saved his Great Grandpa Alfred, a Spitfire pilot, from being shot down during World War 2, and learns of the arrest by the Nazis of his Great Grandma Mary, Caleb wishes he could fix things. But how? Paul Haston's book is a coming of age, historical fiction with a magical twist for children aged 9-12.

1945. War has ended, but for sisters Isobel and Flora, the struggles still continue. They've lost their father, had their home destroyed in a bombing raid and now they must go to live with their aunt and her awful husband, Mr Godfrey, in their ancestral home of Splint Hall. From the moment of their arrival, it seems that this is a place shrouded in mysteries and secrets. Who are the strange men who arrive with packages at night? What is the source of the strange blue sparks coming from the ground? And why do the locals seem to hate their family so much?

1848. The Bondi family is leaving for a better life in America. But 15-year-old August doesn't want to go. He's found his life's purpose in Vienna, fighting on the barricades against a tyrant king. But in America, August discovers a new cause after confronting the evil of slavery. Though he loves his life of freedom, the young firebrand ultimately heads to Bleeding Kansas and casts his lot with the notorious John Brown.

The moving story of a young boy who discovers the power of beauty and kindness during a time of war. Drasko helps his father sell flowers in Sarajevo, but when war threatens and his father is called to the battlefront, Drasko must take over the flower stall. One morning the boy's familiar routine is shattered when a mortar shell hits the bakery, killing 22 people. The next day, a cellist from the Sarajevo Opera Orchestra goes to the crater and plays the most beautiful music that Drasko can imagine.

Devorah’s world is shattered by the tragedies of post-Great War Europe: gas poisoning, famine, typhoid, and influenza. Then comes the Night of the Burning, when Cossacks provoke Christian Poles to attack their Jewish neighbors.

At the mountain's base sits a cabin under an old hickory tree. And in that cabin lives a family - loving, weaving, cooking, and singing. The strength in their song sustains them through trials on the ground and in the sky, as they wait for their loved one, a pilot, to return from war. With an author's note that pays homage to the true history of Native American US service members like WWII pilot Ola Mildred "Millie" Rexroat, this is a story that reveals the roots that ground us, the dreams that help us soar, and the people and traditions that hold us up.

At the outbreak of World War 1, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. He's soon caught up in enemy fire and fate takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to the trenches to find him and bring him home....

Anna's little sister, Eva, is frail and needs time to learn new things. She has a huge heart and a gift for loving, but Hitler doesn't value such riches. And so she's hidden away. Safe for now, but with the threat of discovery always near. Anna does her best to bring joy and light to Eva's small life with stories, trinkets and treasures from the outside world. But soon, more children need hiding. Risks are taken – by Anna, by her best friend Udo, by a Nazi seamstress and feisty Brunhilde. Until Anna wonders if any of them will make it through the war ...

Tim has lost both his father and his brother, Sam, to the Revolutionary War. And for what? The war continues, with fighting and bloodshed all around him, no closer to peace. As the violence grows, Tim and his mother struggle to stay neutral, but Tim's anger is unrelenting. Haunted by memories of his brother's final moments, Tim is starting to realize that eventually, everyone must take a side. But which side should pay the price for his brother's death: the British or the Rebels who led Sam into the line of fire?

This is a story of friendship. This is a story of hope. It’s the story of an era that helped shape our country and define our times, told through one boy’s extraordinary journey through his own small patch of America. And it’s the story of a debt he can never repay to someone he knows only as The Bicycle Man.