The Big War : I'm Still Scared by Tomie dePaola (Beginning Chapter Books)

Tomie dePaola is best known for his picture books, especially his Caldecott Honor classic Strega Nona. Over the past few years, he has taken on the beginning chapter genre with his 26 Fairmont Avenue series (Accelerated Reader level 3.9-4.3), a group of personal memoirs of his primary school years in Meriden, Connecticut, during the early 1940's. The first book, 26 Fairmont Avenue, was a Newbery Honor book.

Two of these books deal with the home front during the beginning of World War II. Things Will NEVER Be the Same takes seven-year-old Tommy dePaola through the first happy months of his year in second grade and ends on December 7, 1941, with the shocked family trying to deal with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese aircraft.

I'm Still Scared begins on December 8 as Tommy and his sister arrive at school to see grownups huddling and talking in low tones in the halls. School is dismissed early so that children may hear President Roosevelt's speech (now known as the "Day of Infamy" speech) with their families at home. Although Christmas lights are still allowed and gifts are being wrapped for the tree, life for Tommy's family is changing. Children crouch under stairways and in the school basement for their first air raid drill. Mrs. dePaola sews and hangs blackout curtains on their window and Mr. dePaola takes a second job in a defense plant. Tommy has his first experience with wartime prejudice as kids taunt him about his Italian last name and say he's the enemy. While Tommy is frightened by these genuinely disturbing events, his parents carefully explain why these things are occurring, and he is reassured that his family will meet the coming events together.

This book is followed by a new sequel, Why?: A 26 Fairmont Avenue Book, which continues dePaola's autobiographical account of America at war, deals with food rationing and the loss of a relative at war from the honest viewpoint of a young boy. This is a laudable beginning chapter series, and the three titles which deal with the war years will provide modern children with a reassuring look at how Americans met the challenges of a wartime past and help them deal with the threats of international conflict in their own lives.