Don't You Know There's a War On? [Hardcover]

Avi (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

Brooklyn, New York, 1943: a time and place so remarkable that a mere five years later, Howie Crispers, wise at sixteen, can look back to record its fleeting intensity, already long behind him in memory.

In 1943, Howie's pop is in the merchant marine, dodging Nazi U-boat wolf packs an the brutal North Atlantic sea. Denny, Howie's best friend, has a father in the Eighth Army, battling Nazi general Rommel in North Africa. Every day the boys face reminders of war -- scary headlines, blackouts, scrap collections, warstamp drives.

Saturday mornings, Denny and Howie both leave their worries and responsibilities behind at the 25-cent kid movies. During the week, they depend on Miss Rolanda Gossim, their teacher. She may be strict, but she's kind and a lot prettier than any movie pinup. She occupies the boys' fantasies and makes the war bearable for Class Five-B at Brooklyn's P.S. 8. When Howie discovers she's about to be fired, he needs to find out why, and -- with the help of Denny and the rest of their class -- he makes plans to keep her on the job.

By turns hilarious, sad, and surprising, Avi's latest tale is a touching story of innocent love and yearning that's rich with authentic Brooklyn voices and poignant memories of the early 1940s -- days when unexpected, even shocking events took place without warning, days when, no matter what happened, you could explain it all with a simple phrase: "Don't you know there's a war on?"

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sixteen-year-old Howie Crispers narrates Avi's (The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle) poignant, funny coming-of-age tale set in Brooklyn during WWII. For the facts, readers can consult Stephen E. Ambrose's excellent volume (reviewed below), but for a flavor of everyday life on the homefront, they will appreciate Howie's recollections of his experiences as a fifth grader during one pivotal week in March 1943. The hero juggles everything from failing math grades and air raid blackouts to a crush on his teacher and worries about his merchant marine father, criss-crossing the North Atlantic. Howie also suspects his principal of being a Nazi spy, and follows him into a brownstone one morning where he overhears plans to fire his beloved teacher, Miss Rolanda Gossim (he thinks of her at night when fear overtakes him: "She was my emergency brake, my life raft, my parachute, my own private rescue squad"). How he "saves" Miss Gossim makes for a smashing story enlivened by the added emotional texture of a boy dealing with wartime realities (particularly the death of his "bestest" friend Denny's father) and romance (Miss Gossim is actually married to a missing airman and pregnant). Howie's voice, firmly rooted in Brooklyn ("You'd feel worse than a Giants fan in Ebbets Field," he says of disappointing Miss Gossim), takes on the inflections and slang of the era. The novel ends on an upbeat note, with 16-year-old Howie celebrating the end of the war and still carrying a torch for Miss Gossim. Ages 8-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Howard Bellington Crispers looks back from his 16-year-old perspective to 1943 when he grappled with issues of friendship, fear, love, and loss. At age 11, Howie and his friend Denny share a crush on their teacher and they suspect their principal is a Nazi spy. However, in a sleuthing expedition, Howie learns that the principal's real perfidy hits closer to home-he is urging the firing of Miss Gossim. Howie visits his teacher and she tells him the reason for her pending dismissal-she is secretly married to an army pilot and is pregnant. Taking up her cause and disregarding his promise to keep her secret, Howie circulates a petition to stop the firing, embarrassing the young woman but securing her a reprieve until the end of the school year. Avi packs the story with authentic details of World War II in Brooklyn, NY, augmented by newspaper headlines. He peppers it with funny scenes, lots of slang dialogue between the boys, and a keen sensitivity to the adolescent psyche. Layered into the plot is the drama of the boys' absent fathers. Howie's returns but Denny's is killed, and the bittersweet ending reflects the protagonist's regret over losing Denny's friendship when his own family moves to Long Island. Though lacking in originality, this quick-moving, easily read story will be enjoyed by many readers. A more serious, complex, and in-depth treatment of a similar theme can be found in Janet Taylor Lisle's beautifully wrought The Art of Keeping Cool (Atheneum, 2000).
Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380978636
• ISBN-13: 978-0380978632
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,421,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Avi has published more than sixty books. Among them is Crispin: The Cross of Lead, winner of the 2003 Newbery Medal. Other novels with nineteenth-century settings, like The Traitors' Gate -- his grand nod to the work of Charles Dickens -- are listed before the title page, and include the Newbery Honor Book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Avi and his family live in Denver, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Book Made Me Uncomfortable, April 26, 2003

By 

Carolyn Kernkamp (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't You Know There's a War On? (Paperback)

This book made me uncomfortable. I bought the book for my fifth grade classroom, and put my name on it before I read the book. I wish I hadn't because I can't now return it. I will not put the book in my class library because I don't think it is appropriate for the elementary class. Here's why. In the book, the main character has a crush on his teacher, not uncommon. But he does to some lenghts to secretly find out information about her personal life. The teacher is married and pregnant. She got married after a week long relationship with a departing pilot and has no way now to contact him and in fact does not know if she will ever see or hear from him again. Yes, the kids save her job. And that is great. But at the end, 5 years later, the boy is still dreaming of the teacher and the comfort she can provide. While not overtly [explicit], the running theme of the boys obsession makes me very nervous. Maybe 10 years ago I would have been charmed, but now, with school shootings not uncommon and where we read several times a year about student/teacher affairs, I am uncomfortable. I'll discuss almost any question my kids want to talk about, not this. Also, the tragedy of the young woman's life - young, pregnant, not knowing if or when she will reconnect with her husband - so poorly chosen - hits too close to home for the kids I teach. So, although I like Avi's writing, this is one book that won't go on my classrom shelf.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review from a 6-year old, November 19, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Don't You Know There's a War On? (Paperback)

Don't You Know There's A War Going On? by Avi
A kid called Howie is trying to save his teacher from being fired from his school (he is trying to save her because she is his favorite teacher). She is being fired because she is pregnant. During this time, World War II (WWII) was going on. Everyone had to wear dog tags in case they were killed. Dog tags have names on them so people can identify other people if they are dead. Howie was, as a matter of fact, successful in "unfiring" his teacher. He wrote a note to his principal but since the teacher did not want to give it to him, Howie gave it to the principal's boss which is how his favorite teacher became unfired. This is a very good book about WWII because it has articles about certain dates. Some of the dates actually tell about the end of the war and why it ended. I give this book 4 stars out of 5 stars! It could be better by making the book longer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars brings back some memories, June 9, 2005

By 

doog fuss "doofus0123" (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't You Know There's a War On? (Paperback)

I didn't grow up in ww2, but I lived on a naval base in California as a boy during the viet nam war. behind our back yard was a military property where they would have target practice and other sorts of exercises (quite some distance from the fence, of course). needless to say it was off limits but we'd sneak back there anyway, and sometimes had to fetch baseballs and kickballs. i had always wondered what all was really going on back there. we used to pretend we were soldiers and "spy" on the people back there from behind the tall weeds that grew up along the bottom of the cyclone fence.

This book brought all of that back into clear focus, as those were the last days of our innocence (before we moved out-of-state). I think howie's imagination ran very vivid -- perhaps too vivid -- but then my dad was never on the front lines that i know of so perhaps that's more real than i can comprehend. while not entirely realistic, i found this book to be a very accurate depiction of a childhood nestled amidst the confines of war and all its acoutrements.