Don't Talk to me about the War [Hardcover]

David A. Adler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2008 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Thirteen-year-old Tommy Duncan just wants to root for the Brooklyn Dodgers and listen to the radio. But it’s 1940 and the world is changing. His friend Beth just wants to talk about the war in Europe. That’s an ocean away, though, and Tommy has more immediate concerns—like Beth looking pretty and his mother’s declining health. The stories of a Jewish friend at school, however, begin to make the war more real to him.

Set in the Isolationist period—a time in U.S. history rarely explored in children’s literature—this moving novel features a hero who struggles with first love, family responsibilities, and America’s role in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Growing up in the Bronx, 13-year-old Tommy tends to overlook the newspaper headlines and go straight to the sports pages. But the year is 1940. His friend Beth anxiously follows unfolding events in Dunkirk, their friend Sarah worries about her relatives in Nazi-occupied Vienna, and soon Tommy finds himself concerned about events taking place an ocean away. When his mother’s mysterious ailment grows worse, Tommy stops playing stickball after school to help out more at home. Adler builds a straightforward story in which small changes, decisions, and revelations gradually shift the main character’s outlook and concerns over a period of time. The signs that Tommy has grown up a bit are subtle, but perhaps that’s what makes them believable. Using historical details to good effect, this quiet novel gives readers the sense that they are looking in on the actual period rather than viewing a stage set crammed with 1940s props. An engaging and very accessible historical novel. Grades 4-7. --Carolyn Phelan

Review

...a family story, full of important lessons about life, loss and going on because you have to. -- Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (April 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067006307X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670063079
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,798,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.