Recommend me WW2 books for a 10 year old Aspie.

Cafe Society
#1

My birthday twin is turning 11 this Thanksgiving and loves World War Two.

I bought for him this summer a ginormous coffee table book about the Airplanes of World War Two for every military. ( I think WW1 might have been covered too.) If the book didn’t weigh a metric buttload, his mother ( one of my BFF) said he would carry it everywhere.

He loves planes, tanks and guns. (And wanted to be a German Army Guy - complete with swastika - for Halloween, but has been gently discouraged.)

This boy is high functioning and has been mainstreamed all his life. Most parents and other kids don’t know that anything is ‘wrong’ with him other than he talks slightly monotoned.

I am open to reference books as well as fiction or nonfiction. Zee more German, zee better. Ja.

Aspie is short for Aspberger’s Syndrome, in case you were wondering.

#2

He also enjoys his lego’s. If anyone has a really good Lego Building Book that they can recommend, I would appreciate.

Legos are always a great gift for kids of all ages.

#3

Reach For The Sky. A truly inspirational biography about a gifted athlete and airman who was not only a staggeringly good flyer but on the brink of international sport when a crash cost him his legs, and who got himself back into a wartime cockpit through sheer bloody-minded refusal to accept defeat.

#4

Thank you for this recommendation! I just may pick up a couple of copies for myself and nephew as well. Looks really good!

#5

This site has what I believe are the definitive directions for making some WW2 tanks out of legos. The link goes directly to the page to order the directions on CD, for $40.

Combine the tanks with, say, some lego Nazi’s from Brickarms and you’ll be all set.

This is of course assuming he already has a ton of lego’s to build with.

#6

There’s also Maus. My son’s an Aspie, although a bit older, and he found the graphic novels very accessible, and sad of course.

Sometimes, comics and graphic novels make difficult material easier for kids to deal with. If he’s been very into the German side of things, he might not dig a memoir of a Polish Jew camp survivor, but then again, he might be fascinated by the other sideness of it all.