Book Themes Relating to Society
Book Recommendations by Theme are listed here in order to help teachers, book club organizers, and other readers find books organized around a common principle, or big idea. Please see the Main Page List of Themes for more categories, as well as Book Lists by Topic
Technology in Society; Nature of Progress
Laws, Politics, Conspiracy
War; Conflict Between Groups
See also Historical Events
Bamboo People (Burmese Military Conflict)
The Bicycle Spy (WWII) Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Powerful Weapon (WWII; nuclear bomb; various countries) Climbing the Stairs (WWII; India) Code Name Verity (WWII; U.S., U.K., and more) Code Talker (WWII; Navajo Code Talkers) Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (Vietnam War) A Diamond in the Desert (WWII; Japanese Internment) Echo (WWII) Elijah of Buxton (Underground Railroad; U.S.) Ender's Game (Science Fiction conflict) The Fifth Wave (Science Fiction alien invasion) Flygirl (WWII - female pilots) I Am Number Four (Science Fiction aliens on Earth) Incommunicado (WWII; Oregon, Japanese-Americans) A Long Walk to Water (Lost Boys of Sudan) Maus Milkweed (WWII; Warsaw Ghetto) A Million Shades of Gray (Vietnam War; Vietnam) Morning Girl (Underground Railroad; Escape from Slavery; U.S.) Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Vietnam War |
The Night Diary (The Partition of India)
A Night Divided (WWII; Berlin Wall, East Germany) Number the Stars (WWII; Nazi Invasion of Denmark) Resistance (WWII; Polish Ghettos) Romeo Blue (WWII; U.S.) Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Post WWII; Hiroshima) Salt to the Sea (WWII: Refugees fleeing Poland, Prussia) Samurai Rising (12th Century Genpai War) Sing Down the Moon (U.S. Displacement of Native Peoples; Trail of Tears) Tasting the Sky (The 1967 Six-Day War in the West Bank) Unbound (Escape Attempt from Slavery; U.S.) The Underground Abductor (U.S. Civil War) The War That Saved My Life (WWII; U.K.) When My Name Was Keoko (Japanese Invasion of Korea) Woods Runner (American Revolution) Words on Fire (Lithuanian Resistance to Russian Empire) |
Tradition and Change
Dystopian Worlds
Alone
Among the Hidden - series Dangerous Divergent Eventown The Fifth Wave The Girl Who Could Fly The Giver I Am Number Four The Last Beekeeper The Last Book in the Universe The Last Cuentista Legend |
Matched
The Maze Runner The Neptune Project The Rule of Three The True Meaning of Smekday Truesight Uglies |