Note: This page was revised in October 2009.  In 2006, a living wiki was created from these lists. We hope that, as a wiki, this bibliography will grow, develop, and stay current with the help of its users. Please visit the wiki, and please make changes and additions if you can.

This list was built from the contributions of librarians, educators, parents, and young readers.  To add your suggestions and to comment on titles you see here, please write to Alison Clement or Bruce Jensen.   We welcome any information you have on titles you suggest, such as age/reading level, publishers, and your thumbnail reviews or personal experiences with the books. 

The titles are linked to reviews and publication details, most at the site of a gargantuan online bookstore simply because it does such a good job of furnishing this kind of data.  That's not to be interpreted as an endorsement; we urge you to buy from local independent booksellers.  BookSense.com can help you find them.


Every book its reader.  Assigning age levels to books is an imprecise endeavor at best.  We've labeled the English-language titles according to four rough age groups.  Your mileage my vary, but PRE should be suitable for preschool and the beginning grades; ERL for kids in the early elementary grades; MID for preteens to early teens, and YA for youngand formerly youngadults.


MID  Ain't Gonna Study War No More: The Story of America's Peace Seekers  Milton Meltzer 

YA All Quiet on the Western Front  Erich Maria Remarque

MIDAnd One For All  Theresa Nelson  

YA Back the Attack! Remixed War Propaganda  Micah Ian Wright 

PREBang, Bang, You're Dead  Sandra Scoppetone  

ERLBaseball Saved Us  Ken Mochizuki    

MIDThe Big Book for Peace  Ann Durrell and Marilyn Sachs, editors   

MIDThe Blue Boy  Martin Auer and Simone Klages  

PREBlue Jay in the Desert  Marlene Shigekawa  

PREThe Bomb and the General Umberto Eco  

MID The Breadwinner  Deborah Ellis   

PRE The Butter Battle Book Dr. Seuss  

YACatch-22  Joseph Heller

YACat's Cradle  Kurt Vonnegut

ERL The Cello of Mr. O  Jane Cutler   

MIDThe Day the Earth Was Silent   Michael McGuffee 

PRE Dear Ichiro  Jean Davies Okimoto   

MID Echoes of War  Robert Westall  

YA Ender's Game  Orson Scott Card     

ERLFaithful Elephants  Yukio Tsuchiya   

YA Fallen Angels  Walter Dean Myers    

PRE The Story of Ferdinand  Munro Leaf   

MIDThe Fighting Ground  Avi  

ERLThe Flame of Peace: A Tale of the Aztecs  Deborah Lattimore

YAThe Flash of Hiroshima (Hiroshima no pika)  Toshi Maruki     

YA Forever Peace  Joe Haldeman  

YAThe Forever War  Joe Haldeman  

MIDThe Fragile Flag  Jane Langton

ERL  Gandhi  Demi    

MID Gavriel and Jemal: Two Boys of Jerusalem   Brent Ashabranner
ERLGeorge, the Drummer Boy  Nathaniel Benchley  

YAGeorge Johnson's War  Maureen McCallum Garvie and Mary Beaty   

ERL Gleam and Glow  Eve Bunting

PRE Grandpa's Face  Eloise Greenfield 

MID Habibi  Naomi Shihab Nye    

ERL The Hat  Faith and John Hubley    

PREHere Comes the Cat!  Frank Asch and Vladimir Vagin     

PREHome of the Brave  Allen Say  

MID I Dream of Peace: Images of War  Children of the former Yugoslavia   

YAI Had Seen Castles Cynthia Rylant 

YAThe Incredible Tide  Alexander Key   

PREIsland of the Skog  Steven Kellogg   

PREIt's Mine!  Leo Lionni     

YAJarhead  Anthony Swofford   

MIDJohn Black's Body  Ben Martin  The complete 1939 edition published online

YAJohnny Got His Gun  Dalton Trumbo

PREThe Knight and the Dragon  Tomie DePaola  

MID The Last Flower: A Parable In Pictures  James Thurber    

ERLThe Little Weaver of Thai-Yen Village  Khanh Tuyet Tran  

YALord of the Flies  William Golding

ERLMagic Dogs of the Volcanoes  Manlio Argueta 

PRE A Million Visions of Peace: Wisdom from the Friends of Old Turtle Jennifer Garrison and Andrew Tubesing   

PRE Mole Music   David McPhail   

PREMouse Creeps  Peter Harris   

MID My Hiroshima  Junko Morimoto  

MID My Shalom, My Peace: Paintings and Poems by Jewish and Arab Children Jacob Zim, editor    

YA 1968  Joe Haldeman

ERLOne and Seven  Gianni Rodari  

YAOn the Beach  Nevil Shute

MIDOn the Wings of Peace  Sheila. Hamanaka, editor   

MIDAn Outbreak of Peace  Sarah Pirtle

MID Parvanna's Journey  Deborah Ellis   

ERL Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story  Ken Mochizuki  

MIDPatrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam  Walter Dean Myers    

MIDPeace and Bread: The Story of Jane Addams  Stephanie Sammartino McPherson 

PREPeace Begins With You  Katherine Scholes   

ERLPeace Crane  Sheila Hamanaka    

PREPeace Is a Circle of Love  Joan Walsh Anglund  

ERL Peace on the Playground: Nonviolent Ways of Problem-Solving Eileen Lucas

MIDPeace Tales  Margaret Read MacDonald   

YA People Power: A Look at Nonviolent Action and Defense  Susan Neiburg Terkel  

YAA People's History of the United States  Howard Zinn  

ERLThe Pig War Betty Baker  

YA The Pity of War  Niall Ferguson 

ERLPink and Say  Patricia Polacco   

MIDThe Princess and the Admiral  Charlotte Pomerantz 

PRE Potatoes Potatoes  Anita Lobel

MIDThe Pushcart War  Jean Merrill   

PRE Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale  Marcus Pfister
YAThe Red Badge of Courage  Stephen Crane

MIDRilla of Ingleside  L.M. Montgomery

MID The Road From Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl  David Kherdian 

MID Rose Blanche  Roberto Innocenti 

ERL The Roses In My Carpet  Rukhsana Khan 

MIDRunning on Eggs  Anna Levine  

MIDSadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes Eleanor Coerr 

ERLSami and the Time of the Troubles  Judith Heide Gilliland and Florence Parry Heide

MIDSamir and Yonatan  Daniella Carmi  

MIDSearch for Peace: The Story of the United Nations  William Jay Jacobs 

ERLThe Secret Grove  Barbara Cohen 

MIDShattered: Stories of Children and War Jennifer Armstrong, editor

ERL Shin's Tricycle  Tatsuharu Kodama and Noriyuki Ando    

ERLThe Silence of the Mountains  Liz Rosenberg

PRESix Crows  Leo Lionni   

YASlap Your Sides  M.E. Kerr   

YASlaughterhouse-Five  Kurt Vonnegut 

PRESomewhere Today: A Book of Peace   Shelley Moore Thomas  

YAThe Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East and North Africa Naomi Shihab Nye, editor 

MID A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust  Alison Leslie Gold 

MIDStepping on the Cracks  M. D. Hahn 

YA Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide Lorna Touryan Miller andDonald Eugene Miller

MIDA Swiftly Tilting Planet  Madeleine L'Engle  

PRESwimmy  Leo Lionni   
PRE The Story of Ferdinand  Munro Leaf   

YA Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation  Jimmy Carter 

PREThe Three Astronauts  Umberto Eco and Eugenio Carmi

PREThe Tin Heart  Karen Ackerman 

MIDTorn Thread Anne Isaacs  

PREThe True Story of the 3 Little Pigs/ By A. Wolf  Jon Scieszka    

YATwenty-Four Eyes  Sakae Tsuboi 

PREThe Upstairs Cat   Karla Kuskin  

MID Voices From Vietnam  Barry Denenberg

ERLThe Wall  Eve Bunting

MIDThe War  Anais Vaugelade 

PREWar and Peace  Toni Goffe 

ERLWar and Peas  Michael Foreman

MIDWar and the Pity of War  Neil Philip, editor

ERL War Boy: A Country Childhood  Michael Foreman

YA War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning  Chris Hedges

YA The War Prayer  Mark Twain

YAWar Year  Joe Haldeman  

YA What Every Person Should Know About War  Chris Hedges   

YAWhen the Winds Blow  Raymond Briggs   

PREWho's In Rabbit's House?  Vera Aardema

ERLWhy?  Nikolai Popov

YA Why Do They Hate Me?  Young Lives Caught In War and Conflict  Laurel Holliday

ERL World War Won  Dav Pilkey  Out of print, but published here on Pilkey's website

YA You Back the Attack! We'll Bomb Who We Want!  Micah Ian Wright

ERL Young Peacemakers Project Book  Kathleen Fry-Miller, Judith Myers-Walls   

YAZlata's Diary  Zlata Filip

 

In Spanish
12 cuentos para un sueño  Mireya Madrid Malo

A la diestra de Dios Padre  Tomás Carrasquilla

Así amaneció en Siboney y otros cuentos del Caribe  Flor Romero

Aventuras de Aitana en el Amazonas   Flor Romero

El barco sin capitán  Nohra Puccini de Rosado

Las batallas de Rosalino  Triunfo Arciniegas

El béisbol nos salvó  Ken Mochizuki

La Bolivariada  Dora Castellanos

El cuento de Ferdinando  Munro Leaf

Cañones y manzanas  Adela Turin

La Casa del abuelo y La Casa del Arco Iris Fanny Buitrago 

Catalino Bocachica  Luis Darío Bernal

Colombia, mi abuelo y yo  Pilar Lozano

Cuchilla de Evelio  José Rosero

Cuentos de Pombo  Rafael Pombo

La cueva de los 8 encantamientos  Flor Romero

El día que condoresa extravió su plumaje  Flor Romero

La Expedición Botánica contada a los niños Elisa Mujica

Ferdinando  Munro Leaf

Guerra del chocolate  Robert Cormier

La Guaca y Guía de Literatura Infantil  Rocío Velez de Piedrahíta

Juan Sábalo  Leopoldo Berdella de la Espriella

Letras de paz  UNEDA/UNESCO

Un libro para soñar Flor Romero

El mohan enamorado Flor Romero

Noche de humo  Eve Bunting

Los perros mágicos de los volcanes  Manlio Argueta

Pink y Say  Patricia Polacco

¿Por qué?  Nikolai Popov

Rosa Blanca   Roberto Innocenti

Sapo y el forastero  Max Velthuijs

Un pasito y otro pasito  Tomie de Paola

Verdadera historia de los 3 cerditos  Jon Scieszka

Zoro  Jairo Anibal Niño


In Japanese

Futari no Eda  Miyoko Matsutani

Hachigatsu ga Kurutabini  Hide Oe

Hiroshima no Pika  Toshi Maruki

Hiroshima no Uta   Sukeyuki Imanishi

Hotaru no Haka  Akiyuki Nosaka  ALSO AVAILABLE AS A SUBTITLED ANIMATED VIDEO + DVD

Nijushi no Hitomi  Sakae Tsuboi
 

Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga

411  Marvel Comics  THREE-VOLUME ANTHOLOGY DEBUTING SPRING 2003

Attitude: The New Subversive Policital Cartoonists  Ted Rall, editor

Fax From Sarajevo  Joe Kubert GRAPHIC NOVEL

Get Your War On  David Rees

The Great Big Book of Tomorrow: A Treasury of Cartoons  Tom Tomorrow   ERUDITE POLITICAL SATIRE

The Little Tin-Pot General and the Old Iron Woman  Raymond Briggs GRAPHIC NOVEL

Maus: A Survivor's Tale  Art Spiegelman  HISTORICAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

Maus II  Art Spiegelman  HISTORICAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

Mutant Hanako  Makoto Aida IN THE ANTHOLOGY SECRET COMICS JAPAN

Notes From a Defeatist  Joe Sacco  GRAPHIC JOURNALISM

Palestine: In the Gaza Strip  Joe Sacco  GRAPHIC JOURNALISM

Peace Party  Rob Schmidt COMIC BOOK SERIES

Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995  Joe Sacco  GRAPHIC JOURNALISM


More book lists

100 Picture Books for PeaceMohawk Valley (NY) Library Association

Books About Peace, Nonviolence, ToleranceSkokie Public Library

Books for PeacePeaceQuest Foundation

Books for Reducing ViolenceNational Council for the Social Studies

Book Resources: PeacemakersCayuga Heights Elementary School

Children's Peace Bibliography—Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse

Militarism and the Arms RaceAppalachian Peace and Justice Network
PeaceChildren's Book Council

Peace Bibliography—Monroe County Public Library, Indiana

Preschool Peace Curriculum materials listBluffton College

Promoting PeaceCary Memorial Library, Massachusetts

Trade Books for Reducing ViolenceRonald and Mary Banaszak
War and Peace In Children's LiteratureCynthia Leitich Smith

 

Resources

Atrium Society's Youth Peace Literacy Project

Children and War—Jane Cutler

Classroom ResourcesEducating for Peace

Institute for Peace and Justice

Thousand Cranes Peace Network

War and Peace Literature for Children and Young Adults: A Resource Guide to Significant Issues  Virginia Walter

 

 

Latest revision: 
October 9, 2009

 

 

Bruce Jensen
bibliotecas.geo@yahoo.com

 

Read Alison'scomments in USA Today

 

Scope: With few exceptions, every book in the English-language portion of this list involves war or its consequences.  Much as we love many of the great children's books that address themes such as bullying and conflict resolution, we shaped this list around themes of war as waged by nations and other large violent groups.

The most frequent exceptions are found among books for very young readers.  Such books often deal with war through metaphors and parables; we feel there are many titles for this age group that, though not explicitly about war, are entirely consonant with the thrust of this list.

Many excellent bibliographies are available that take a less strictly focused approach than ours.  Their interpretation of peace themes makes room for positive messages of friendship, cooperation, and personal conflict resolution  We have included links to several of those lists.