Families who loved The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss often look for books with a similar feel. These 20 recommendations were selected for their similarity in style, theme, and reading level.
Reach for this book when your child begins asking complex questions about fairness, prejudice, or how people survive when their world is turned upside down. It is an ideal choice for a middle grade reader who is ready to move beyond simple hero stories and explore the nuanced, quiet reality of historical perseverance and the power of human connection during times of isolation. Based on the author's own childhood, the story follows young Annie and her sister Sini as they spend two years hiding from the Nazis in a cramped upstairs room of a remote farmhouse. While the backdrop is the Holocaust, the heart of the book is about the intense bond between sisters and the incredible kindness of the Oosterveld family who risk everything to protect them. It is a realistic, deeply moving memoir that focuses on the internal experience of confinement and the resilience of the spirit rather than graphic external violence.