Both of the novels/series that you picked above are treasures from my childhood. The Changeling, By Zilpha Keatley Snyder, for my childhood, if we are stretching to speculative fiction. Honestly, I can't choose.
Okay, I'll take the plunge: The Overman Culture, by Edmund Cooper, for my childhood SF choice. From my adulthood? The three-volume trilogy commencing with Grass, by Sheri Tepper.
This is so hard!
As a child, most of my SF, came from comics, Dan Dare, mainly, in the Eagle. When I was 12 I read Brave New World and 1984, whilst I enjoyed the futuristic elements in both, I didn't really appreciate the books until I re-read them as an adult. My favourite SF book of all time, well, up to now, has to be Neuromancer, William Gibson, and the other parts Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overide.
I encountered Neuromancer about 15 years ago, I picked up the book in W H Smiths, casualy read the first par and continued reading up to and at the counter and all the way home, luckily I was without the car that day:-) The use of language, description, the flow from one scene/character to another, brilliant stuff.
The Dune series. I read them as a child and as an adult, and I still pick up the first to read it again occasionally.
The Star Wars New World Order series,V. C Andrews; Emily dickinson, edgar allen poe, langston hughes, Maya Angelou, Danielle Steele, Robert Frost... There are so many because I am an advid reader so I won't list them all lol.
From my childhood, I would have to say any of Madeleine L'Engle.
The Haruhi Suzumiya series - definately a personal fave. I also enjoyed Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" although I didn't really enjoy the subsequent novels in the series.
Hammer's Slammers, Baen Books, written by David Drake.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.