War and Millie McGonigle by Karen Cushman

Millie McGonigle is an appealing 12-year-old who is struggling to deal with tough things in life, like death and war.

War and Millie McGonigle by Karen Cushman. Alfred A. Knopf, 2021, 210 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 9-13

1941 has not been a great year for Millie McGonigle. Her pop hasn’t had steady work for years, her mother frets over and dotes on sickly little sister Lily (who eats it up), the neighborhood boys are jerks and she has no friends. But all this pales in the gigantic shadow of her Gram’s sudden death. There was nobody like Gram, who never stopped fighting injustice yet always had time for Millie: “my merry squirt, my grumbly but funny dance partner and poker buddy.”

Gram’s death was a ringing affirmation of the girl’s opinion of the world as she’s coming to see it: a gloomy place haunted by death and looming war. Gram’s last gift to her was a yellow notebook and purple pen, with which to record “Things that seem lost or dead—keep them alive and safe in your book.” That’s what Millie is doing now: Keeping a Book of Dead Things, like the sea life washed up on the mud flats outside her San Diego home. But it just might be that she misunderstood Gram’s instruction.

As in her other novels, Karen Cushman presents an authentic, engaging voice in an era of the past enlivened by color and detail. Much of the inspiration was drawn from her husband’s memories of growing up in San Diego during World War II. War does not directly affect Millie’s family, and is more of a milieu than a theme in the story. The action is episodic with little narrative drive, such as a mystery or central conflict. But over the meandering story Millie will learn to recognize the goodness in life, even during a time marked with anxiety and sorrow. It’s a worthwhile reminder for today’s kids: the sun still shines, surprises aren’t all bad, and death does not have the final word.

Considerations:

• “We McGonigles do not go to church. Not, Gram used to say, until the pope got married so he’d know what life was really like. But I had my own rituals . . . The same things in the same way every day. When I don’t, I feel itchy and uncomfortable.” Worth discussing?
• There is one use of the word “damn” and another of “hell,” both by the same young man who apologizes afterward.

Overall Rating: 3.75 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.25

Read more about our ratings here

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Review: More historical fiction by Karen Cushman: Will Sparrow’s Road.
• Reviews: The World War II home front is fertile ground for children’s fiction: see our reviews of My Friend the Enemy, Home Front Girl, A Place to Hang the Moon (starred review), and Duke.
• Reflection: “Dealing with Death” in children’s literature, particularly as it relates to novels like Bridge to Terebithia.

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