Book clubs provide an innovative structure to study course content. Teachers can supplement the use of traditional textbooks and primary sources by including narratives that provide personal perspective into world events. Although more typical of English language arts classrooms, incorporating the workshop model into content area instruction merged disciplinary-specific skills with the more advanced literacy skills expected of students in high school. This article describes how two teachers organized an inquiry-based instructional unit on World War II that allowed students to examine the stories of youth using a lens of "action and adversity." Students showed greater engagement and higher levels of self-directed learning when participating in book clubs over the course of the unit.