War and Millie McGonigle is a wonderful new historical fiction book! Millie lives in San Diego when World War 2 starts. Dealing with the recent death of her grandmother, Millie struggles to overcome her fears of war and death and fear of the unknown to be able to have fun and still be a kid. There are a lot of great characters in this book and Millie’s point of view makes it easy to sympathize with her and really imagine what it would have been like to be a child during that time.

The end of the Great Depression still weighs heavily on twelve year old Millie’s family. When spacey relative Edna needs a place to stay, she shares a bed with Millie in a bedroom with sickly younger sister Lily while brother Pete ends up on the sofa. Dad is piecing work together, Mom is barely managing to keep enough food on the table. Millie’s beloved Gram has just died and Millie, fretting and fearful, is focused on loss.

The San Diego spit between the bay and the ocean where Millie lives is like another character, providing boring perch to eat, luring Millie out for a row or a swim, housing a vivid set of neighbors. Details of the time period are seamlessly incorporated and enrich the characterizations. When Pearl Harbor is bombed, the local naval station becomes a hub of activity and in some ways life gets better as both Mom and Dad go back to work. War has been high on Millie’s list of fears, but now that it has come, she learns some lessons about what it means to be family and discovers surprising depths of resilience.

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Millie McGonigle, a twelve year old, is struggling with the different emotions of growing up. The story is set in San Diego at the eve of WWII, Millie has a sickly little sister who gets all her mother’s attention and a younger brother Pete, the family has just survived the Great Depression and her father is looking for a permanent job. Millie has to handle the responsibilities of being the big sister and is dealing with the passing of her Grandmother, who Millie feels is the only one who understands her. Millie is full of doom and gloom, trying to find her way in the world, while dealing with fears of the war coming to the shores of San Diego.

I am a big fan of children’s author Karen Cushman so I was excited to get an ARC of her newest novel. I was also excited to see that the setting for this book was in modern times as most of her stories seem to take place in medieval times. This story takes place during World War II in California and follows the daily life of 11 year old Millie McGonigle. She has a lot to deal with on a daily basis - the recent death of her beloved grandma, her chronically ill little sister, her eccentric and forgetful aunt moving in unexpectedly, food shortages, and the financial strain her parents must deal with. On top of all these problems, she must also deal with the issue of World War II and the fear and helplessness this war evokes. The author does a great job conveying all of these emotions in the story while also inserting humorous incidents and conversations throughout. Her writing style is superb!
I think this book would appeal to a middle school student and would even make a great classroom read aloud especially as it gives a realistic glimpse into how tough and unsettled times were in the United States during the war.
Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for providing me with this electronic advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Such a timely and relatable historical fiction story! Twelve year old Millie is believable and easy to identify with even though the story is set during World War II. I will definitely recommend this to my historical fiction fans as well as my library "regulars".

Millie is a twelve-year-old girl living in San Diego mourning her grandmother's death. The year is 1941, just months before Pearl Harbor and Millie writes daily in a journal given to her by her grandmother. A journal she calls The Book of the Dead. Millie is a sensitive girl and it surprises me how she treats her little sister. There are plenty of laughs as Millie navigates through life during wartime and the sacrifices everyone must make. A budding friendship, United States entry into the war, and her little sister's health scare change Millie. I love the chapter (near the end of the story) where Millie opens up about how she misses her Grandmother and cries it all out. This is a truly poignant story.

Newbury winner Cushman brings to life yet another period in history, making the issues that were important THEN feel relevant for today. Setting and characters are the stars here, Cushman creates a seaside community that today's "no child left inside" movement would hold up as the ideal place for a child to grow up. Millie is a nuanced, flawed and likeable protagonist today's readers will relate to, especially her grief over losing her Grandmother and ongoing sibling issues. It will be easy to flashtalk this one to readers looking for a beautifully written, thoroughly satisfying book. Recommended for all middle grade collections.

This story of a child worrying about World War 2 comes at the perfect time. I think all of the children worried about COVID-19 will enjoy getting to know Millie.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Told from the very believable and relatable perspective of 12 year old Millie, I felt what it was like during WWII in San Diego. The side details and characters contributed to the flow of the book.

World War II is such a popular topic in historical fiction, yet this was different than the usual World War II story. I enjoyed how the author didn't focus on the war, the atrocities of the time, but didn't gloss over them either. The story focuses much more on how the war affects Millie's coming of age and her relationship with her family. She recently lost her grandmother, with whom she was quite close, and her sickly little sister seems to be demanding more attention from her parents leaving Millie feeling lost. The family dynamic is changing with a new relative moving in, her mother taking a job outside of the home, and the financial pressures of the time. And Millie is navigating it all at a pivotal time in a young girl's life (and in history).

I adored Millie! I liked how her way of grieving her grandmother was different, but also she was just trying to keep her memory alive. Her book of dead things, is her way of dealing and remembering, but it's also a little bit sad. Millie is realizing that death happens all around you and to keep living you have to keep remembering.
I felt for Millie as her sister gets all the attention and she isn't sure where she fits in the family anymore.
This is a good coming of age novel. I really enjoyed it!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!