In the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Juliet is not only worried about a bomb dropping on her at any moment and facing her mortality; she's also reeling from rejection by her former best friend, Lowell. Lowell has started hanging out with boys, and doesn't want to be around her anymore. Juliet makes friends with the new girl in town, who's tom-boyish, outspoken, and maybe a liar. Things come to a head when the neighborhood bully decides it's time for a war of his own: boys vs. girls. Now Juliet has to prove herself, but will it help her win her friend back? And just how far will she go?This is a good historical fiction novel that shows how young children coped with the Cold War and the anxiety that it created. It also shows small town America gradually coming into the modern age. But the main feature of the story is growing up, losing and making friends, and learning to find yourself. Not sure if modern students might find some of it too quaint, but it's a sweet story of friendship with a lot of potential curriculum connections. This Means War takes us into a girls vs. boys neighborhood battle of former best friends challenging each other with double-dog-dare-like contests to see which gender comes out on top. Set against the cultural backdrop of the Cold War and Cuban missile crisis, the kids soon see how easy it is to escalate conflict to dangerous levels. Sometimes, Juliet feels torn between her loyalty to her new girl friends and long-standing best friend Lowell who doesn't seem to want to be her friend anymore. Complicating matters is the stress at home where her parents, who run the corner grocery store, see their livelihood threatened by the new supermarket craze. Add to this the national crisis of potential atomic war, and poor Juliet doesn't know what the future will hold, or if there is to be a future at all for her. Under this stress, we do see her parents fight an awful lot, and her Dad expresses his frustration with a fair amount of coarse language. At first, Juliet seems to be handling the strain well with a heart-felt prayer life, but the author undoes this positive element by revealing that Juliet not only doubts the existence of God, but decides that she is just praying to her deceased grandfather instead. Although the story held my interest until the end, I ended up feeling like the story wasn't all it could have been.
What do You think about This Means War! (2010)?
Good book. This book seemed to change voice a variety of times. Okay story. Young YA.
—Julia
Very,great book to read if your tired of reading the same type of kid genre books.
—Tihirua
