Can anyone recommend war fiction books for 14 yo

[Lupyto]

My ds was always a big reader. He loved all the Harry potters and all the Jurassic parks. Also enjoyed the dark is rising series. Recently he is really enjoying listening to history podcasts. He also loves horrible histories books. He likes learning about the 1st and 2nd world war. So I wondered if I might try to recommend books that are set in the war. Although nothing too depressing - if that is possible. Can anyone recommend any?

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier

I loved Theresa Breslin's Rememberance at that age?
In a year or so I'd suggest he reads The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker, but they definitely have adult themes. Life changing for me though.
I found Birdsong dull but lots of people love it.
Anything by Michael Morpurgo, I enjoyed Private Peaceful a lot
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Schaffer and Barrows for WW2 is also very good.

Oh - The Book Thief is also a good (sad) read for Germany in WW2.

I think Chris Ryan has written some military books aimed at teenagers

I came on to suggest The Silver Sword too

Not sure if this is a bit young but I always loved when hitler stole pink rabbit, out of hitler time, and a small person far away by Judith Kerr

I second Private Peaceful by Morpugo. And, though I haven't read it personally, would maybe suggest Warhorse.

Yes….
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Special-Collection-Missing-Ruthless-Assassin/dp/1471411583/ref=asc_df_1471411583/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=563121349831&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9471489893132638390&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006722&hvtargid=pla-1484509833315&psc=1

Warhorse is good shout

My DS read a few Biggles books, if you can handle so retro, they are formulaic so if read one you've read the others.

Several by Robert Swindells, think Blitzed was a hit

Thanks these are great suggestions

Robert Westall. I personally liked The Kingdom by the Sea. The Machine Gunners is supposed to be good but I haven’t read it.

The machine gunners is excellent but might be a little too young for him?

The silver sword
the book thief
when hitler stole pink rabbit
war horse

hms Ulysses is really good - about the Arctic convoys. The guns of navarone is really exciting as well.

All quiet on the western front

he’s probably a little young for it, but I read Schindler’s Ark when I was at 17 - it’s very very good.

My DD loved the 'Once' series by Morris Gleitzman.

Machine Gunners is a great read.

Dolphin Crossing - Jill Paton Walsh , is another good read. I still have my copy of this from when I was a child.

I studied Schindlers Ark for a-level. Also Vera Britons biography.

I can hear to say Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful too! I read it at around that age and it really stuck with me.

Is he too old for Goodnight Mister Tom? I loved that book, we watched the TV adapation I'm sure I cried buckets.

Sorry if this is a big tangent but also what about Robin Jarvis books, or the Welkin Weasels?

I have heard good things about "where the sky falls" - maybe too young?
I definitely read all quiet on the western front at that age
Maybe too old and off the wall but - catch 22?

The Biggles books set in the First World War are worth reading. Allowing for the extra excitement and adventure required in fiction, they are quite good accounts of life in the RFC on the Western Front. Agree the others become formulaic and repetitive.

Could also try some other older authors such as Percy F. Westerman, who wrote wartime adventure fiction. Some are available free online.

And John Buchan's Richard Hannay books, especially The Thirty Nine Steps (ignore all the film versions, none of them are remotely like the book) and Greenmantle. Also free online.

Pre WW1, but foreshadowing it, The Riddle of the Sands. Also free online.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a bit young - the protagonist is a 10yo girl. The other two books aren't really about the war.

In Spite of All Terror by Hester Burton is good. The main character is a 15yo girl, but there is also a teenage boy who takes part in the Dunkirk evacuation with his grandfather.

If he doesn't mind older wars, Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series is a rattling good series of reads set during the Napoleonic wars. I don't recall anything too challenging for an enthusiastic 14 year old.

I am David is about about a boy who escaped a concentration camp.

If he likes the silver sword, the same author (Ian Serralier) wrote There’s no escape which I remember enjoying around that age

Pied Piper by Nevil Shute - about an Englishman on holiday caught out by the start of the war who has to get back home but brings a number of children fleeing the war with him.

All Quiet On The Western Front (a classic) but might not hit the “not too depressing” note.

The Overlanders by Dora Birtles is an interesting read about cattle droving in Australia during WWII.

All the Light We Cannot See might also fit the brief.

The war that saved my life

Definitely adult themes in Pat Barker, and not just the sex. Birdsong gets pretty sexually explicit too, though, doesn't it? Though I think it's all hetero in Birdsong (may be wrong, long time since I read it), if that makes a difference to anyone. Also I think sometimes not necessarily fully consensual; I vaguely remember a scene with a main character terrifying a young prostituted girl using a knife. To be fair, it is quite dull, so I don't remember all the details. I'd feel uncomfortable recommending it to a teen reader unless they had plenty of guidance tho.

Fighter Pilot : Paul Richey
Reach for the Sky : Paul Brickhill