DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT THE WAR

It’s 1940, and much is going on in the life of 13-year-old Tommy Duncan. He would love to carry on with his routine of family, school and the Brooklyn Dodgers, but the world won’t leave him alone. His mother is clearly ill and getting worse, and the war raging in Europe is all his new friend Beth wants to talk about. Beth’s mother recently died of cancer, and keeping up with the news is how Beth maintains their connection. Now his other friend Sarah is talking about how her family fled the Nazis and how not all family members have been accounted for. Though readers may pick this up thinking it’s a baseball story, it is more a family story, full of important lessons about life, loss and going on because you have to. The mystery of Mrs. Duncan’s illness will pull readers along, and Tommy and his times are subtly evoked in this satisfying historical novel. (Fiction. 10+)