Historical youth literature as a means to build identity

Literary narrative, as well as entertaining, provides a historical and contemporary place to raise awareness and reflection in young readers on subjects such as identity ('who am I?'), the necessary self- reflection, the relationship with memories of the ancestors, the forgetfulness of the past and the need for its transmission to subsequent generations, and therefore, the individual responsibility as a link between past and future. Despite the difficulty in transferring the horrors of wars to second and third generations, we present the role of contemporary historical children's literature as a mediator for an open intergenerational dialogue.