"In Flanders Fields" - Norman Jorgensen

Lest We Forget... In honor of Remembrance Day.

The famous poem by John McCrae coupled with the heart-wrenching yet heart-warming artistry in sepia tones and sketches makes this a beautiful memorial for the Great War. And to highlight the symbolism of poppy - the red bird is the only color.

Read Also:

Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon.

Fly, Cher Ami, Fly by Robert Burleigh.

War Game by Michael Foreman.

"Why Not, Lafayette?" - Jean Fritz

I never really knew much about Lafayette except that he fought during the American Revolution.

BUT this man was there for every major event in France and America during his lifetime! He fought in the American Revolutionary War and was friends with George Washington. He visited every state in the Union at the time. Every town called Lafayette is named after him. He met all the Founding Fathers and Presidents during his lifetime. And that's just America.

He was there when the French stormed the Bastille. His family was imprisoned during the French Revolution. He fled his country and was imprisoned in Germany. His family got out during the Reign of Terror and rescued him from Germany. They lived in Denmark. He saw the rise and fall of Napoleon twice! He served in the French government. He formed France's version of the National Guard.

The man was awesome! And always for Liberty.

Read Also:

Revolutionary Friend: General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette by Selene Castrovilla.

Jean Lafitte: the pirate who saved America by Susan Goldman Rubin

Jean Fritz does a whole bunch of picture book format books about famous people during the American Revolution.

"Traitor" - Sandra Grey

I love me my Christian romance! I'm a little weirded out by Mormon romance...

Marie is a Mormon Allied spy in France. Rolf is a Mormon Nazi major. They cross paths, and through the guidance of the Holy Ghost, they manage to make it through the war.

I just realized how dull this book sounds. But it's really not! I was surprised by how interesting it was. (If her research was done right,) the details of how Mormons lived in Nazi Germany were fascinating. I also think her side characters bumped the plot up. How contemporaries reacted to Mormons is not often discussed in your average WWII story.

[Heads up: it's a trilogy.]

Read Also:

Hadassah: one night with the king by Tommy Tenney is a WONDERFUL(!!!) novel about Esther, a religious girl placed among non-Jews. I like these books for the understanding that develops on both sides.

If you'd like to commit to a huge endeavor: The House of Winslow series by Gilbert Morris follows a family through the history of America. A highly religious family, each member must gain their own faith while living through historical eras.

Romeo and Juliet comes to mind...

"Adele & Simon" -Barbara McClintock

Done in the style of Gigi and Madeline, this was a fun romp through Paris. On each page, Simon loses something which is somewhere on the page (and not a big object either). You also can look for Simon and famous artists and works. There's a guide in the back for those.

Read Also:

John Skewes' "Larry Gets Lost in..." series is a picture view of Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and his latest, Washington D.C.

Where's Waldo? by Martin Handford.

There's a great series from the 80s and 90s, "Agent Arthur..." by Martin Oliver put out by Usborne Puzzle Adventures, that is all about seeing the right things in the pictures and solving the puzzles. Whew, blast from the past there!

"Shadows Over Stonewycke" -Michael Phillips, Judith Pela

The 5th in a serires of 6 ... or the 2nd of 3 in the 2nd series of 2 ... dude.

Coming highly recommended (Thank You!)- the "Stonewycke" books: The Stonewycke Trilogy and The Stonewycke Legacy, are about Stonewycke, a castle in Scotland and its owners: the Ramsey clan.

The trilogy focuses on Margaret Duncan (bks 1,2) and her daughter Joanna (bk 3) as they live and learn and grow. The legacy focuses on Allison, Joanna's daughter, and her husband, Logan MacIntyre. Shadows Over Stonewycke deals with the War years. Allison's and Logan's marriage, though built on their Christian faith, crumbles under the stress and lack of faith that comes from hard times. The "refiner's fire" they undergo during WWII rebuilds their faith, trust, and love in each other and God.

Very religious books, I enjoy reading about how these women take very natural emotions and desires and use them in ways to build their faith and families. I have cried multiple times during these books as the writing is strong and thought-provoking. There is quite a bit of history as well. Btw, the time frame of the series is over 100 years!

Read Also:

E.W. Honung's Raffles: the Amateur Craftsman - pretty much what Logan MacIntyre does before he reforms.

Bodie & Brock Thoene's The Galway Chronicles - 4 book series about an Irish family's faith and strength through Ireland's violent history.

Leon Uris' Trinity - an epic of familial loyalties and history in Ireland and England.

"The Seduction of the Crimson Rose" -Lauren Willig

As a lover of the Scarlet Pimpernel books and a sucker for a romance, I was on top of a recommendation to read The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. History, romance, swashbuckling, hunky guys: my kind of book. So much so that I recommended the book to someone else ere I ever cracked the cover. Oops. Before we met up again, I read the book and was a little shocked at the sex. I wasn't prepared for a Harlequin romance, if only because I expected more story. She was slightly scandalized that I had ever read a book like this. I held off reading the 2nd book but the story was good:

Plot: doctoral student in England studying spies of the Napoleonic era discovers proof of her theory of a Pink Carnation spy, equable to the Scarlet Pimpernel and Purple Gentian. The tales of the student and her research are told simultaneously through the series.

So I kept reading and each book had less sex. Well, here I made it to The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, the 4th book in the Pink Carnation series (yes, they all use flowers in the titles), and it had negligible sex in it. Not sure what Willig's goal is but the stories got better and the romances kept up. So now I feel justified in recommending the series.

Read Also:

I tend to lean towards Christian romance so a wonderful historical romance was Bodie and Brock Thoene's The Galway Chronicles (4 books) set in Ireland under the oppression of England.

A similar writer, though I don't actually recommend her writing, just her subject matter, is Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady.

And of course, Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel!