Suggested reading for young adults grades 6 and older concerning aspects of terrorism, violence and cultural perspectives. Parents and teachers may wish to use this as a resource list for reading and discussion with their children and students.


Terrorism (Fiction)

Banks, Lynne Reid     Broken Bridge.
The murder of fourteen-year-old Glen Shelby, soon after his arrival in Israel to visit his father's family, has a dramatic effect on the lives of his relatives, the other members of their kibbutz, and those responsible for his death.

Cooney, Caroline     The Terrorist.
Sixteen-year-old Laura, an American living in London, tries to find the person responsible for the death of her younger brother Billy, who has been killed by a terrorist bomb.

Cormier, Robert     After the First Death.
Events of the hijacking of a bus of children by terrorists seeking the return of their homeland are described from the perspectives of a hostage, a terrorist, an Army general involved in the rescue operation, and his son, chosen as the go-between.

Cray, Jordan     Firestorm.
When fifteen-year-old Randy Kincaid accidentally logs on to an Internet chat room and discovers a fanatical group that he thinks may be responsible for a series of bombings, his life in Bunnington Beach, Florida, quickly moves from boring to endangered.

Cross, Gillian     Wolf.
Cassy is forced to stay with her mother in a squatter's settlement of artists, where she joins the group in producing an educational program about wolves and inadvertently learns that her missing father is a notorious terrorist.

Heneghan, James     Torn Away.
Forcibly deported to Canada because of his terrorist activities in Northern Ireland, thirteen-year-old Declan must choose between his revolutionary past and a new life with his Canadian relatives.


Cultural Perspectives (Fiction)

Banks, Lynne Reid     One More River.
Resentful at being forced to leave Canada, Lesley's adjustment to life in the Israeli kibbutz is not easy.

Carmi, Daniella    Samir and Yonatan.
Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to an Israeli hospital where he has two otherworldly experiences, making friends with an Israeli boy, Yonatan, and traveling with him to Mars where Samir finds peace about his brother's death in the war.

Levine, Anna     Running on Eggs.
When Karen and Yasmine become friends as well as members of a mixed Arab and Jewish track team in Israel, relatives and friends of both girls disapprove of the relationship.

Nye, Naomi Shihab     Habibi.
When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.



Personal Stories (Nonfiction)

Children of “the Troubles”: Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland.
A collection of young people's experiences of the violence in Northern Ireland shares their thoughts on growing up with fear.

Dear Oklahoma City, Get Well Soon: America’s Children Reach Out to the People of Oklahoma.
A collection of letters from American children to those affected by the Oklahoma City bombing, with statements from some adults involved in the rescue and clean-up operations.

Filipovic, Zlata     Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo.
A chronicle of the war in Sarajevo from a child's perspective details Zlata's struggle for survival and a normal life in a chaotic nation.

Lamb, Nancy     One April Morning: Children Remember the Oklahoma City Bombing.
Conversations with children from the Oklahoma City area about their feelings at the time of the bombing of the Federal Building and afterwards.

Why Do They Hate Me? Young Lives Caught in War and Conflict.
Shares the writings of children caught up in the Holocaust, World War II, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and “the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

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