譯/王麗娟
After a decades-long wave of blockbuster novels about wizards, vampires and dystopias, the latest trend in children's literature is surprisingly old. Historical fiction about World War II is having a renaissance.
巫師、吸血鬼和反烏托邦的暢銷小說大行其道數十年後，兒童文學的最新趨勢是令人吃驚的老題材。二次大戰的歷史小說正掀起一場文藝復興。
"We're seeing more publishing on it than we ever have before," said David Levithan, the vice president and publisher of Scholastic, noting that this is a topic "that across the board is popular with kids of all ages."
"It's a story with unambiguous good guys and bad guys," he said.
「學術」出版社副總裁兼發行人大衛．李文森說：「我們看到這個題材的出版量多到前所未見。」他說，這個題材「大小通吃，受到所有年齡孩子的喜愛。」
他說：「這是好人、壞人黑白分明的故事。」
This year, Scholastic is publishing seven middle-grade and young-adult novels set in the period, including Alan Gratz's "Projekt 1065," about a boy who joined the Hitler Youth as a spy, and "The Darkest Hour," Caroline Tung Richmond's novel about a teenage spy in France.
World War II has always captivated readers, and authors and publishers say the subject has the rare potential to draw men and women as well as young and old readers to a single title.
今年，「學術」準備出版7本給8到12歲和13到18歲讀者看的小說，背景都是二戰時期，包括艾倫．葛拉茲的《1065計畫》，描繪一名男孩以間諜身分混入「希特勒青年團」，而卡洛琳．唐恩．里奇蒙的小說《最黑暗的時刻》，是法國一名青少年間諜的故事。
二戰題材一向能抓住讀者，作家和出版商說，這個題材具有非常難得的潛力，能讓同一本書男女老少皆宜。
"World War II really opens up the market," said novelist Kristin Hannah, whose 2015 novel, "The Nightingale," about women in the French Resistance, has sold more than 2 million copies.
World War II stories may hold a special appeal because this was a conflict that young people got swept up in — as refugees, Resistance fighters and youth soldiers — as dire circumstances forced them to behave like adults.
小說家克麗絲汀．漢娜說：「二戰真的打開了市場。」她2015年出版的小說《夜鶯》，敘述法國反納粹地下組織「法國抵抗運動」女性的故事，銷售超過2百萬冊。
二戰故事可能還有一種特別吸引力，因為它是年輕人也被捲入的一場衝突─變身難民、抵抗運動鬥士、少年兵，危殆的形勢迫使他們必須表現得像大人。
When Monica Hesse was 11, her father gave her a copy of "Hitler's Willing Executioners."
Most preteens would have blanched at getting a more-than-600-page book about the Holocaust as a present. Hesse, who had read "The Diary Of Anne Frank" over and over, was riveted by it.
莫妮卡．海斯11歲時，父親給了她一本《希特勒心甘樂意的劊子手》。
多數青春期前的小孩拿到的禮物是本厚達600多頁，談納粹大屠殺的書籍，可能嚇得臉色發白。但對《安妮的日記》百讀不厭的海斯，被它深深吸引。
"My parents knew that was what I was interested in," said Hesse, 34, a feature writer for The Washington Post.
Now Hesse is hoping to hook other young readers on World War II stories with her young-adult novel, "Girl in the Blue Coat," about a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam who joins the underground student resistance movement.
海斯現年34歲，為華盛頓郵報撰寫特稿，她說：「我的父母知道那是我感興趣的東西。」
現在海斯希望能以她寫給13到18歲讀者的小說《藍外套女孩》吸引其他年輕讀者閱讀二戰故事，該書描述納粹占領下阿姆斯特丹一名十來歲少女，最後加入了學生地下抵抗運動。
This novel's young heroine, Hanneke, sells goods on the black market to support her family. She reluctantly agrees to help one of her customers find Mirjam, a Jewish girl who was hiding in a friend's pantry, then mysteriously disappeared. Hanneke's search for Mirjam forces her to confront her own apathy and ignorance about the atrocities that have been taking place around her.
小說的年輕女主角漢妮克在黑市販賣商品以維持家人生計。她勉強同意幫一位客人尋找猶太女孩米莉安的下落，米莉安躲進朋友的食品儲藏室，後來神秘失蹤。漢妮克尋找米莉安時，被迫面對自己對發生在周遭暴行的冷漠和無知。
