Seiple, Samantha. Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion.
One of the things that the US government didn't want anyone to know was that Alaska had been attacked. The Japanese were trying to distract US intelligence from realizing that Midway was going to be attacked, and so took control of areas of the Aleutian islands. This book covers a huge number of aspects of this occurrence, ranging from the cryptographers who were following what the Japanese were doing, to residents of the village of Attu who were made prisoners of war and shipped to Japan, where many of them died, to members of a military weather unit stationed in Alaska who were also captured. In addition, there was a lengthy battle at Attu that was the most deadly hand-to-hand combat in the entire war; 549 US troops were killed (out of 15,000), and only 29 of the 2680 Japanese survived because the generals ordered a mass suicide, and the Japanese detonated hand grenades while holding them against their chests. All documents about these events were classified for many years, although there were some reparations made in the 1980s for the citizens of Attu.
One of the things that the US government didn't want anyone to know was that Alaska had been attacked. The Japanese were trying to distract US intelligence from realizing that Midway was going to be attacked, and so took control of areas of the Aleutian islands. This book covers a huge number of aspects of this occurrence, ranging from the cryptographers who were following what the Japanese were doing, to residents of the village of Attu who were made prisoners of war and shipped to Japan, where many of them died, to members of a military weather unit stationed in Alaska who were also captured. In addition, there was a lengthy battle at Attu that was the most deadly hand-to-hand combat in the entire war; 549 US troops were killed (out of 15,000), and only 29 of the 2680 Japanese survived because the generals ordered a mass suicide, and the Japanese detonated hand grenades while holding them against their chests. All documents about these events were classified for many years, although there were some reparations made in the 1980s for the citizens of Attu.
Strengths: Wow. The middle school boys will LOVE this one. Already had my number one WWII reader request this from the public library.It reads like a fact-filled novel, and there are enough gruesome details as well as espionage and survival stories that this will never be on the shelf.
Weaknesses: The prose seemed a bit wooden to me, and I don't usually notice that.
There's a new Nonfiction Monday page by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at Great Kid Books.
Middle Grade Monday can be found at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog
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Weaknesses: The prose seemed a bit wooden to me, and I don't usually notice that.
Bodden, Valerie. Fighter Jets.
ARC from Baker and Taylor; published by Creative Education.
This is one of the Built for Battle series on military equipment that also includes aircraft carriers, armored vehicles, helicopters, and several others. This was very short (24 pages) and contained rudimentary information about how jets operate and are used. There is a glossary in the back, and ample pictures. While these would get checked out in my middle school, they are more suited to the youngest war mongers, probably from first to third grade. I was rather amused by the ARC-- it consisted of the sewn together pages from the inside of the book, and the dust jacket!
There's a new Nonfiction Monday page by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at Great Kid Books.
Middle Grade Monday can be found at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog
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