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October 1962. Juliet Klostermeyer's world is turning upside down. All she hears from her parents and teachers and on the news is the Russian threat and the Cuban Missile Crisis. And things aren't much better at home. Her best friend, Lowell, doesn't seem interested in being her friend anymore—he'd rather hang out with the new boys instead. When Patsy moves in, things are looking up. Patsy is fearless, and she challenges the neighborhood boys to see who's better, stronger faster: a war between the boys and the girls. All the talk of war makes Juliet uneasy. As the challenges become more and more dangerous, Juliet has to decide what she stands for—and what's worth fighting for.
This is a powerful middle-grade coming of age novel from teen powerhouse Ellen Wittlinger.
Fifth-grader Juliet cannot grasp why Lowell doesn't want to be her friend anymore, so when Patsy moves into her neighborhood, she happily befriends the loud, opinionated girl. Lowell seems relieved (“You have a girl to play with, and I have boys. That's how it's supposed to work.... Isn't it?”), but Juliet still feels hurt. When a neighborhood bully proposes a series of competitions between boys and girls, Juliet joins Patsy's team. Even though the tests are increasingly dangerous, readers might be surprised by the intense final face-off. Wittlinger (Parrotfish) raises many complex gender questions without being heavy-handed: can boys and girls be friends as they get older? Are traditional girl activities like dancing as athletic as stereotypical boy ones like hitting a baseball? Readers will find it easy to root for Juliet, both as she competes and as she sorts out her relationships with sensitive Lowell and the often pushy Patsy. The book's backdrop—an Air Force town during the Cuban Missile Crisis—ratchets up the anxiety and clearly places the children in a critical moment between childhood and the adult world. Ages 10-14. (Apr.)
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
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Antoine May
reviewed This Means War! on May 18, 2010 This Means War!
In Ellen Wittlinger's new middle grade novel THIS MEANS WAR, Juliet Klostermeyer is a typical bike-riding, roller skating, candy-bar-eating kind of kid, navigating the changes that always come with growing up. Her parents argue, her older sister keeps kicking her out of their shared bedroom to listen to music and talk about boys with her friend, and Juliet's best guy friend is hanging out with new neighborhood boys instead of her. Typical kid stuff.
But the year is 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis is looming large over Juliet's Air Force base town, and she is afraid. In a voice that is equal parts funny and poignant, Wittlinger captured that feeling perfectly in passages like this one, when Juliet reacts to a news bulletin and speech from President Kennedy on TV:
"Juliet had her legs tucked underneath her and her arms wrapped around her chest; she hadn't moved through the whole speech. 'I wanted to watch Mister Ed with Mom,' she said, and then the tears began to trickle down her cheeks. It suddenly seemed as if President Kennedy and the Russians and the newscasters had all stolen something precious from her that she could never get back."
And this one...just a few pages later, when Juliet looks to her teacher for reassurance:
"Juliet tried to look deep into Mrs. Funkhauser's eyes to see if she was telling the truth about not being worried. But it was hard to tell with
teachers. They all looked like they had varnish on their faces -- it was hard to see if there were any cracks underneath the shine."
(As a teacher, I particularly love that line!)
A contest between the boys and girls of the neighborhood serves as a great way to lighten the feeling of menace for a while, but even that challenge, which starts with things like running races and roller skating, escalates. It ends up serving as a great allegory for the kind of one-upsmanship that punctuates international relations in this period of history.
Overall, THIS MEANS WAR is a funny and wonderful book that will really give middle grade readers a sense for what it was like to be a kid in October of 1962. Highly recommended, and it would make a terrific class read-aloud. (Recommendation based on a review copy sent to me by Simon & Schuster)
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