Unsurprisingly, stories featuring the circumstances of child or teenage protagonists during World War II tend to appear prominently in the category of young adult literature, with classics like Lois Lowry's Number the Stars existing as staples of historical fiction in schools and libraries all over. But as is the case with Jennifer Rosner's Once We Were Home, which follows grown-up characters reckoning with how they were displaced away from their Jewish families during the Holocaust, some books written for adults also center the specific viewpoints of those who experienced the war as children. Below are just a few.

The Yellow Bird Sings, Jennifer Rosner's debut, features the perspectives of a Polish Jewish mother named Róza and her five-year-old daughter, Shira. Róza and Shira flee their village and seek safety in the barn of a gentile married couple who offer protection — but at a price. To make their situation more bearable, Róza tells an elaborate story to ...