World War 1 and World War 2 resources

[Porridge]

I’m building a course for DD’s 8th grade next year. I’m looking for resources on WW1 and WW2. I hope to have some kind of overview / spine, and would also welcome interesting supplementary books. DD usually doesn’t like Great Course-like audio/visual lectures, but she does like interesting documentaries. I’d love to hear what your DC have used and enjoyed. Thanks in advance!

ETA: I may have DS tag along, too. He’ll be in 6th.

Edited April 20, 2021 by WTM

[Porridge]

Has anyone used the PBS/BBC series, The People’s Century?

 

[HomeAgain]

Not a book, but the Google newspaper archives.  We made it a point to look up events through regional newspapers and then to go to our historical societies websites and talks.  It really brought home the idea that these were real, living people who were affected, and the ripple effect through their community over decades.

[Emily ZL]

I just saw these. Timberdoodle has a ton of graphic novels of true war stories. There's 24-hour history (Attack on Pearl Harbor, D-Day), True Stories of WW1, True Stories of WW2, Amazing WWII Stories, The Unbreakable Zamperini, Navajo Code Talkers, Irena Book One: Wartime Ghetto, and Behind Enemy Lines. How awesome do these look? I saw a review on someone's blog that said her kids read and re-read these and their retention was higher than history retention often is. I'd like to do this when it comes around again in our cycle. You might be able to suggest some to your local library if you don't want to buy them all; sometimes libraries take people's suggestions for good resources to purchase.

https://timberdoodle.com/collections/history/Historic-Graphic-Novels

[blendergal]

My kids are younger, so I don’t think you’d be interested in most of the resources we used when we studied the world wars. But since someone mentioned graphic novels, I have to share just one. This was our favorite WWI book:

https://www.amazon.com/Treaties-Trenches-Blood-Nathan-Hazardous/dp/1419708082

[goldenecho]

Extra Credits History has a great series on WWII.   They also have a series on the start of WWI, which is a good precursor.

If you have Netflix, Churchills secret agents are really good.   It's a reality show where modern people go through the same training that agents went through  before going into Nazi occupied territory to spy, organize resistance, and sabotage.  It switches back between documentary style video about the war and what the modern "recruits" were dong.   The only part I think you might want to skip is the episode on resisting Nazi torture (or at least preview it) as it could be too much for that age.

For supplementary books of course there is the Diary of Anne Frank.   Another good option is the graphic novel Maus.  

 

[Quarter Note]

We've enjoyed this book quite a bit:  The World Wars

Also, two great documentary series on the home front during Britain are Wartime Farm and the corresponding Christmas series Wartime Christmas. Highly recommended!  (We love all of the farm documentaries that BBC put out!)

This will be a little young for your eighth grader, but it may be nice as a lighter book to read:  Snow Treasure, by Marie McSwigan.  We did it as a family read-aloud and we all loved it.  

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Quarter Note
Deleted a resource

[domestic_engineer]

Seconding the Nathan Hale graphic novel that BlenderGal suggested. 

here's my contribution:  The Great War youtube channel goes through week by week what was going on in WW1

We also liked the Extra Credits videos and the Usborne book.