For children and teenagers, ongoing military action in places like Iraq and Afghanistan has been a backdrop to much of their lives. In recent years, several books for the children's and young adult market, both fiction and nonfiction, have explored these conflicts—earlier this year, HarperCollins even published a memoir by a teenage soldier, Ghosts of War. But addressing the realities of war for this market, particularly the youngest readers, can be a delicate business.

“I don't think you can change the truth of a story to make it have a happy ending if it doesn't have one, but I think that for a picture book audience it needs to have a narrative arc,” said Allyn Johnston, publisher of Beach Lane Books at Simon & Schuster and editor of Jeanette Winter's Nasreen's Secret School, in which a Afghan girl stops speaking after her parents disappear. “It's really the story of one girl and her devoted grandmother, and what she's doing to try to bring her granddaughter back into the world after this loss. But then, as much in the images as in the text, you get to see the wider situation of what's happening there.”

Nasreen's Secret School is one of several new books that narrow in on a more intimate story as an entry point to exploring broader issues. In Patricia McCormick's novel Purple Heart, an 18-year-old soldier is recovering from a traumatic brain injury (the war's “signature” injury) and starting to question the events that led to his receiving a Purple Heart medal. “She really wanted to write about one incident to humanize this war for people,” said McCormick's editor, Alessandra Balzer, copublisher of HarperCollins's Balzer & Bray imprint. “Until it has a human face, it doesn't strike a chord with us a lot of us.”

McCormick met with veterans and their families while writing Purple Heart, and a few soldiers have been directly involved in creating fall picture books, lending firsthand knowledge and even photographs from the front lines. Both Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle and Saving the Baghdad Zoo pair soldiers with picture book authors to tell hopeful, true stories set in Iraq. Editor Nancy Conescu at Little, Brown won Nubs at auction (the story, about a soldier's friendship with an injured desert dog in Iraq, had already become a media sensation). “War is really controversial,” she said, “but here's this great story that crossed over all the way from overseas and really touched people.”

Other fall books, including Julia Keller's novel Back Home, the graphic novel Refresh, Refresh, and Geoffrey Norman's debut picture book, Stars Above Us, focus on the mix of emotions experienced while parents are overseas and after they return. Stars Above Us is based on Norman's interactions with his daughter before he was deployed to Vietnam decades ago (incidentally, his daughter is now serving in Iraq). “There aren't a lot of books for kids of military families,” said his editor, Putnam publisher Nancy Paulsen. “We've heard from a number of reps saying that book is needed.”

Publishers also spoke to both the need for accuracy in telling these stories—several consulted expert readers—and the emotional reactions the books have been receiving. “It seems to make people cry,” said S&S's Johnston about Nasreen's Secret School. “Which I figure for a book of this sort isn't a bad reaction.”

Picture Books

Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle by Brian Dennis, Mary Nethery and Kirby Larson (Little, Brown, Nov.) tells the story of Marine major Dennis's friendship with a dog in Iraq.

Saving the Baghdad Zoo: A True Story of Hope and Heroes by Kelly Milner Halls and William Sumner (Greenwillow, Nov.) is a photographic account of Army major Sumner's work helping rescue abandoned animals in this zoo.

Postcards from a War by Vanita Oelschlager, illus. by Mike Blanc (Vanitabooks, Oct.) is the story of a boy whose mother has been deployed.

Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter (S&S/Beach Lane, Oct.) follows a girl who comes into her own again after her parents disappear.

Letters to a Soldier by David Falvey and Julie Hutt (Marshall Cavendish, Sept.) recreates letter and email exchanges between Lt. Falvey and Hutt's fourth-grade class.

Stars Above Us by Geoffrey Norman and E.B. Lewis (Putnam, Sept.). A girl bonds with her father over the stars in the night sky before he is deployed.

Fiction

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick (Harper/Balzer & Bray, Sept.). An 18-year-old soldier recovers from a head injury and questions events that led to it.

Back Home by Julia Keller (Egmont USA, Sept.) is about a 13-year-old coping with her injured father's return from Iraq.

Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes (Scholastic/Levine, Sept.) tells the story of students on a military base and the teacher who inspires them.

Mohammed's Journey: A Refugee Diary by Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young, illus. by June Allan (Frances Lincoln, Aug.) follows a boy's flight from the Kirkuk region of Iraq.

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements (S&S/Atheneum, June) focuses on two pen pals: an American girl and a boy in Afghanistan.

Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan (Groundwood, May). Jameela, a devout Muslim, struggles to survive in Afghanistan after her mother’s death.

Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams (S&S/McElderry, Feb.) When his older brother comes home injured from Iraq, Cam vows to take on the family tradition of bull riding.

Gervelie’s Journey: A Refugee Diary by Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young, illus. by June Allan (Frances Lincoln, Feb.). Gervelie and her family flee the Republic of Congo and make their way to England.

Nonfiction

Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson (HarperCollins, Apr.) is a memoir written by a teenage soldier who served in Iraq.

Children of War by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood, Mar.). Ellis interviews young Iraqi refugees.

Graphic Novels

Refresh, Refresh by Danica Novgorodoff (Roaring Brook/First Second, Oct.). Three Oregon teenagers await their fathers' return from war.

The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert (First Second, May) is a graphic novel/photographic account of a reporter’s time in Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders.

Allegorical

The Little General and the Giant Snowflake by Matthea Harvery, illus. by Elizabeth Zechel (Tin House, Nov.). A general, who commands an army of Realists, discovers a large snowflake one day.

No! by David McPhail (Roaring Brook, Mar.) is a fable about standing up to oppression.

Reprints

The Breadwinner Trilogy by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood, Aug.) offers The Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey and MudCity, set in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in one volume.

Soldier Mom by Alice Mead (FSG, Apr.). Jasmyn’s mother is called to serve in Operation Desert Storm.

Sunriseover Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic, Apr.). In Iraq, Robin and his fellow soldiers face the harsh complexities of war.

War Is..., edited by Marc Aronson and Patty Campbell (Candlewick, Feb.). An anthology of essays, fiction and other writing from people who have experienced war firsthand.