Having grown up with classic films and a fascination with everything surrounding WWII (fashion, food, the historical context, the MOVIE STARS).....I enjoyed War and Millie McGonigle. She is a young girl struggle with the loss of the grandmother, the loss of a familiar world, dealing with rations and random family members moving in. Millie is all about "her book of dead things." In the hopes that by honoring what is dead she can keep WWII from her doorstep. And she can remember her Gran.

This book is about Millie's self discovery. Can she prevent bad things from happening? What good does complaining do? What makes a friend? What about her relationship with her siblings--are they really running the family?

What I appreciated was Millie discovering that while there is something about honoring the dead, she needs to focus on what is living. THAT is how you "beat the fear." I try to do this in my own personal life. ( )

It's the brink of the U.S. entering World War II and California local girl Millie is terrified by the idea of bombs coming down on her coastal town. Interspersed with these fears are vignettes of a childhood filled with annoying neighborhood children, pesky family members, and maybe just maybe a friend at last in the new girl on the block.

This book has war in the title so you can make a fair assumption that some of the subject matter will be difficult. However, within the first two chapters set in June 1941, in addition to Millie’s fear and anxiety about the war in Europe coming to America, Millie’s beloved Gram dies (on Millie’s 12th birthday), Gram’s cousin with dementia comes to live with them, Millie obsessively draws pictures of dead animals from the bay (including not-yet-dead octopus that she watches a fisherman stun by biting them between the eyes) and keeps a list of people she hears have died, her mother lights a cigarette in front of her while complaining about the family’s near poverty after the Great Depression has left Millie’s father unemployed, Millie’s sister Lily is “sickly” with an unnamed chronic condition, and Millie passes by sundry neighbors with foibles such as a boy her age getting into fistfights with other neighborhood children, an adult getting drunk and falling out of a tall tree resulting in injury, and a younger boy acquiring a pet turtle with a painted shell (which is very dangerous for the turtle). Despite all this, the language is for some reason sanitized when it comes to Millie’s exclamations, which are “good gravy!” and the like. I’m not advocating that she start dropping f-bombs but “darn” would still be appropriate for the young audience while having more teeth to it, thus in line with the actual content.

There's ultimately a good message about handling anxiety and grief, but it's so light after a book filled with many more morbid passages and negative coping instead. I enjoyed some Karen Cushman books as a child myself and wonder if it's my adult brain that cannot like this one, but all I can say is I didn't find this one that good. It was interesting enough to keep me somewhat invested, but not noteworthy enough to really recommend it. ( )

Twelve year old Millie is hit hard with the sudden death of her grandma and fears of the war landing on American shores, but the book manages to not be all doom and gloom while exhibiting plenty of growth for Millie along the way.

I wasn’t sure about Grandma’s cousin Edna. Did she have the beginnings of dementia or just forgetfulness? Was she lucid when she admired Hitler and spewed terrible things to a seven year old? I just didn’t know what to make of her, if I was meant to find her antics humorous or distressing, there wasn’t enough clarity where she was concerned so I would have rather spent a little more time with either parent instead.

The 1940’s time period is really what attracted me to this one, there are plenty of adult books set in this era but not as many middle-grades, particularly not ones that take place stateside. This did not disappoint in giving me a sense of what it was like for a twelve year old in that time, especially her fears about war stoked by the radio and those around her and the family’s financial struggles caught between the depression and the war.

I also thought the setting itself, San Diego, was fantastically described with so much of Millie’s time spent outdoors exploring the beach and with nature playing such a pivotal role in her emotional arc.

I wonder if some readers might find Millie a little immature, especially in regards to her younger sister, but I think at that time (and really every decade prior to this one) kids tended to be a little more innocent and juvenile longer than we allow them to be right now. As for Millie’s relationship with her sister, Millie’s jealousy made so much sense to me, her grandmother had made up for losing one on one time with her mom, but in losing her grandma, losing the person who made her feel seen and heard, naturally she all the more envies the connection between her sister and her mom, it represents the relationships she lost with both her mom and her grandmother. I loved how ultimately we see a lot of growth for Millie in that area, the relationship between the sisters as well as Millie’s relationship with her mom, both ended up really satisfying. ( )

Karen Cushman writes about another feisty and smart girl who has to figure out how to navigate through life. In this case, its Millie McGonigle, a12 year old who at the outbreak of World War II was living with her parents, a little brother, a sister in ill-heath and a ditzy cousin in San Diego. The family is just scraping by. Her grandmother has died, her best friend has moved away and Millie constantly worries about the war and death. Told by Millie, the story is poignant as she comes to understand her family. ( )