10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
How World War II Became the Hottest Book Craze…for Kids
An auditorium of eager kids in Washington, Okla., were on the edge of their seats a few weeks ago as author Jennifer A. Nielsen told them about Lidia Durr Zakrzewski, a teenager who joined the Polish resistance during World War II. She served as the real-life model for the young heroine in Nielsen's 2024 novel 'Uprising.'
To the middle-grade audience, Nielsen was akin to a rock star, and she is a bit of one in the publishing world too. The types of books she often writes—historical novels about bombings, spies and young resistance fighters in World War II—have become some of the hottest novels with young readers starting around age 8.
