Rodrigo and Aldo wanted a Feature Shelf about war. Their request lacked any more detail, so I went in my own direction with it. Here’s what I came up with.

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein http://bit.ly/ew-rose | http://amzn.to/1qPhgni
I hadn’t read anything about people who were experimented on by the Nazis during World War II. I don’t even remember talking about these things when I studied World War II in school. How we could have glossed over this, I have no idea.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford http://amzn.to/1CxxJH7
Japanese internment was something we talked about. I remember reading Snow Falling on Cedars in high school. This is one of the books Ms. Williams suggested I add to the list.

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston http://amzn.to/1CxxLyP
This was not originally on this Feature Shelf. Originally, the book occupying this spot was not a World War II title. When I saw this one next to Port Chicago 50 at the library, I figured it would be a better fit for this shelf than my other pick. I heard about this one in Steve Kluger’s My Most Excellent Year, the characters decided they wanted to restore one of the baseball diamonds at Manzanar. And this is how things come into our awareness sometimes.

Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny and the fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin http://bit.ly/1DFsrc9
My poor partner. As I was reading this last month, she got a running commentary about how angry the treatment of Black soldiers and sailors made me. It was one of those reading experiences where I knew the reality, but reading it in print made me incredibly upset.

Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler’s Army by Georg Rauch http://amzn.to/1D40yaQ
This one I added with a specific student in mind. He wants to be in law enforcement and has a penchant for books about the experience of being a Nazi (he’s not a Nazi-sympathizer, before anyone decided to jump on that wagon, he’s just curious).

 What do you think about the books on this week’s shelf?