Over this past year, my son has been working through a study on World War 2. We’ve engaged in a number of different ways to do so, watching movies, working through a unit study from Home School in the Woods, doing small unit studies, using timeline figures, reading a lot of living books, and doing independent research. He has learned a lot and has thoroughly enjoyed his research. I thought I would share some of the living books for world war 2 that he has gone through.

Independent Reading
“MOM! You have got to read this series. It’s very interesting!” The Series on Camp x by Eric Walters consumed my lad. For a while, every time I saw him it seemed like he was reading yet another in the series. He spent his time learning about Camp X, a camp for Canada’s spies.
In this series you’ll find
- Camp X
- Camp 30
- Fool’s Gold
- Shell Shocked
- Trouble in Paradise
- Enigma
He also read Spy Smuggler which is the story of Paul Lelaud a 13 year old French boy who wants to fights the Germans.
How to Lose WW2 by Bill Fawcett. This book is part of the How to Lose series, and focuses on errors made during the war.
On the Horizon is a book of poetry that looks back on the lives of soldiers at Pearl Harbour as well as citizens in Hiroshima.

Reading Together
One of my joys in life is reading books together with my lad, one to two chapters either at night before bed, or just after dad leaves for work. It’s our time which I guard jealously… my son perhaps not quite so much. 🙂
But we’ve read some good books this past year. All of these came in as review books and I’ve linked to the reviews I did of them.
- Torpedoed!
- It rained warm bread
- Displacement
- This Light Between us – still working on this one.
- Under the Broken Sky
Not a living book
My lad has also read some less “living book” style books. I picked up a few books for doing some research. Sometimes it’s easier to just have a book at hand than to go to a library and have to return them before you are ready.
Spies, Lies and Disguise was an excellent book. Providing problems, and then the solutions to problems.
World War II by R.G.Grant. My son said, “This was a good book, I learned a lot!”
Canada’s Wars: An Illustrated History by Jonathan Webb was an overview book. “It just told me a bit about the wars Canada has been part of. I liked it!” It was a source of inspiration for a couple of research papers.
So there you have it. Have you had your students delve deeply into a subject? How did you approach it? Did you utilize living books? Or perhaps unit studies or hands-on studies? How does your student like to engage in in-depth study? My son has enjoyed the mix of living books for World War 2 alongside his independent research and unit studies.