Independent Reading Level: Grade 3
Awards: none

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

I've always had an aversion to most Scholastic-style book series. Growing up, I never was super interested in-- or had the patience for-- following the same characters over seemingly never-ending episodic quests. I would much rather have a complete story, and get-in-and-get-out of that world in 3 books or less.

That aversion probably wandered out of "preference" territory, and ended up more like "prejudice" more often that it should have. Even as a kid, I developed a taste that saw books which needed numbers on the spine as subpar cookie-cutters. The worst, though, were the historical series. Dear America and The Magic Treehouse stand out in my mind as the prime examples. I wasn't against historical books, generally. But in a mass series, it felt... cheap to me. It was the equivalent to being a Kraft 'Mac & Cheese' kid, and refusing to 'settle' for Great Value "Cheese and Noodles". I don't know where I got that from. My parents didn't raise me that way. As an adult, I'm kind of ashamed of that prejudice.

Anyway, all this to say-- as much as I've tried to un-learn my past prejudices, they're never totally gone, because when my kids wanted to get into the I Survived... historical series, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it. "Great, some nobody who thinks they know everything is cheapening history with mass-produced paperback about random tragedies. Probably riddled with inaccuracies!"

But, I found I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 an engaging read with my boys. This is not the ABC's of the World War. It's also not a quirky Netflix Original animated show with cute anthropomorphized creatures, that skip through the beaches of Normandy.

I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 treats the subject with reverence, and while I wouldn't call it 'graphic', I would call it 'serious'. The illustrations may not have a lot of unique flair to them, they're still well done.

Any book that gets my kids asking questions about the world are a-ok by me.

I can't call this a great starting point for kids concerning WWII. Some loose understanding about the War might be beneficial. ( )

Graphic novel book 3 ( )