Books like 'Little Bee'
Readers who enjoyed Little Bee by Chris Cleave also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure military, war & conflict historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic drama survival friendship war
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Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsBased on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours. Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family grief historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics -
![A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini]()
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsA Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years - from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding - that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
![Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story by William Andrews]()
Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story by William Andrews
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDuring World War II, the Japanese forced 200,000 young Korean women to be sex slaves or “comfort women” for their soldiers. This is one woman’s riveting story of strength, courage and promises kept.In 1943, the Japanese tear young Jae-hee and her sister from their peaceful family farm to be comfort women for the Imperial Army... -
![The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken]()
The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPerfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Beekeeper of Aleppo.In the 1930s, Stalin’s activists marched through the Soviet Union, espousing the greatness of collective farming. It was the first step in creating a man-made famine that, in Ukraine, stole almost 4 million lives... -
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![Refugee by Alan Gratz]()
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsJOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . .MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015... -
![A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry]()
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWith a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea...Categorized as:
dark drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
![The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel by Sejal Badani, Soneela Nankani]()
The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel by Sejal Badani, Soneela Nankani
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsAn Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream.Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc realistic -
![Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys]()
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsWhile the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army... -
![Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys]()
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsLina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known... -
![Broken Angels by Gemma Liviero]()
Broken Angels by Gemma Liviero
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA Nazi doctor. A Jewish rebel. A little girl. Each one will fight for freedom—or die trying. Imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, Elsi discovers her mother’s desperate attempt to end her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with the impossibility of their situation. Risking her own life, Elsi joins a resistance group to sabotage the regime... -
![Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa]()
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan. Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
![Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson]()
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsCalled “wholly engrossing” by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive” (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life... -
![Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon]()
Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss. The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West... -
![The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini]()
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 51 ratingsTwelve-year-old Amir is desperate to gain the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament, to prove that he has the makings of a man...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
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![Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa]()
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA sweeping and lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life for her family throughout the Middle East, for readers of international literary bestsellers including Washington Black, My Sister, The Serial Killer, and Her Body and Other Parties... -
![The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See]()
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAlternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501154850Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship grief historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
![To Live by Yu Hua, 余华]()
To Live by Yu Hua, 余华
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel, originally banned in China but later named one of that nation's most influential books, portrays one man's transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant... -
![A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park]()
A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsCherished by millions of readers, this #1 New York Times best-selling novel is a powerful tale of perseverance and hope. Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park interweaves the stories of two Sudanese children who overcome mortal dangers to improve their lives and the lives of others... -
![The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai]()
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWith the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Tran family, set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam War...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
![The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd]()
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsFrom the celebrated author of the international bestseller The Secret Life of Bees comes an extraordinary novel about two exceptional women.Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc -
![We Are Not Free by Traci Chee]()
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II. Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship grief high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic -
![Ground Zero by Alan Gratz, Bernardo De Paula]()
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz, Bernardo De Paula
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSeptember 11, 2001. Brandon, a 9-year-old boy, goes to work for the day with his dad . . . at the World Trade Center in New York City. When two planes hit the towers, Brandon and his father are trapped inside a fiery nightmare as terror and confusion swirl around them... -
![Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese]()
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFranklin Starlight is called to visit his father, Eldon. He's sixteen years old and has had the most fleeting of relationships with the man. The rare moments they've shared haunt and trouble Frank, but he answers the call, a son's duty to a father. He finds Eldon decimated after years of drinking, dying of liver failure in a small town flophouse...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family grief historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic -
![Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jesse Vilinsky]()
Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jesse Vilinsky
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsChaya Lindner is a teenager living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Simply being Jewish places her in danger of being killed or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents all but give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference...Categorized as:
family friendship grief high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
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![The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman]()
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThere on her forearm, next to a small brown birthmark, were six tattooed numbers. 'Do you remember me now?' he asked, trembling. She looked at him again, as if giving weight and bone to a ghost. 'Lenka, it's me,' he said. 'Josef. Your husband.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, falls in love with Josef... -
![The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri]()
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe unforgettable love story of a mother blinded by loss and her husband who insists on their survival as they undertake the Syrian refugee trail to Europe.Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo--until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape... -
![Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate]()
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsKek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice, and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter – cold and unkind.In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing. Kek is on his own... -
![Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein]()
Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction… As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer, Hetty Heinrich is keen to play her part in the glorious new Thousand Year Reich...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction survival war -
![Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais]()
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPerfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy.Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
![Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes]()
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA big, powerful saga of men in combat, written over the course of thirty-five years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran.Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark drama friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic -
![All We Have Left by Wendy Mills]()
All We Have Left by Wendy Mills
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo girls. Two lives. One event that changed them—and the world—forever.Now: Sixteen-year-old Jesse is used to living with the echoes of the past. After her older brother died in the September 11th attacks, her dad filled their home with anger and grief. When Jesse gets caught up with the wrong crowd, one thoughtless decision turns her life upside down...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship grief high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction -
![The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali]()
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsRoya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.Then Mr...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
![Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler]()
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsCalling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship. Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
![The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan]()
The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Feels revolutionary in its freshness." --Entertainment Weekly"The Arsonists' City delivers all the pleasures of a good old-fashioned saga, but in Alyan's hands, one family's tale becomes the story of a nation--Lebanon and Syria, yes, but also the United States. It's the kind of book we are lucky to have... -
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![They Went Left by Monica Hesse]()
They Went Left by Monica Hesse
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsGermany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship grief high-school historical-fiction realistic -
![The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee]()
The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA bestselling novel in Iran, despite being banned twice by the government, The Book of Fate follows a teenage girl in pre-revolutionary Iran through five turbulent decades, from before the 1979 revolution, through the Islamic Republic, and up to the present in this powerful story of friendship, passion, and hope... -
![Moloka'i by Alan Brennert]()
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsSet in Hawai'i more than a century ago, this is the story of Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, who dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
![Small Country by Gaël Faye]()
Small Country by Gaël Faye
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratings‘A luminous and poignant novel about childhood, war, exile and identity…this is literature at its most powerful’ Le Parisien Magazine Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expat neighbourhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister, Ana, is something close to paradise...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
![Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson]()
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsWould you risk everything to be free?The young soldiers at Valley Forge are suffering from hunger, cold, and the threat of the British army. Their newly forged bonds of friendship might be enough to help them survive. But the chains of Curzon's past threaten to shackle him again.Surrounded by the fires of ignorance, mistrust, and greed, Curzon can't risk sharing his deadly secrets with anyone...Categorized as:
coming-of-age friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc politics realistic sad -
![Apeirogon by Colum McCann]()
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFrom the National Book Award-winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the real-life friendship between two men united by loss.Colum McCann's most ambitious work to date, Apeirogon--named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides--is a tour de force concerning friendship, love, loss, and belonging.Bassam Aramin is Palestinian... -
![The Wall by Eve Bunting]()
The Wall by Eve Bunting
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial... -
![Sooley by John Grisham]()
Sooley by John Grisham
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author John Grisham takes you to a different kind of court in his first basketball novel. Samuel "Sooley" Sooleymon is a raw, young talent with big hoop dreams...and even bigger challenges off the court...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic sad -
![The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi]()
The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAfghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
![Jessica by Bryce Courtenay]()
Jessica by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratings'A superb storyteller ... it is impossible not to be impressed by Courtenay's talents' - The Times JESSICA is based on the real life of a remarkable young Australian woman who defied the conventions of her time. She had a stubborn streak and the courage to act out her convictions ... in spite of the consequences... -
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![When We Were Young & Brave by Hazel Gaynor]()
When We Were Young & Brave by Hazel Gaynor
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTheir motto was to be prepared, but nothing could prepare them for war. . .The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home sets her unforgettable new novel in China during WWII, inspired by true events surrounding the Japanese Army’s internment of teachers and children from a British-run missionary school.China, December 1941...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic -
![Number the Stars by Lois Lowry]()
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 81 ratingsTen-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc -
![In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez]()
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsSet during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family high-school historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
![Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick]()
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge... -
![My Mother's Secret by J.L. Witterick]()
My Mother's Secret by J.L. Witterick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA novel based on a true story, a mother and daughter risk their lives to provide shelter to two families and a German soldier--all unbeknownst to each other--in a tiny two-room house in Sokal, Poland, during the Nazi invasion... -
![What Is the What by Dave Eggers]()
What Is the What by Dave Eggers
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama high-school historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics
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