Playing War

By Kathy Beckwith

Book Overview

One summer day, Luke and his friends decide to play their favorite game of war, using sticks for guns and pine cones for bombs. But Sameer, who is new to their neighborhood, doesn't want to join in. When the kids learn that Sameer lost his family in a real war, they realize that war is not a game. The gracefulness of their response and the power of friendship are the real stories here.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0884488616
• ISBN13: 9780884488613
• Release Date: November 2020
• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 9.0" x 9.9"
• Age Range: 7 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 5

Customer Reviews

Helps Children Talk about Peace and War

A group of five children (four boys and a girl) decide, one summer day, to play "war" with pine cones for bombs, and sticks for guns. One boy, who has recently come to the United States from another (unnamed) country, starts to play but decides to go home when his friend Luke declares, "I'm going to blow their heads off." The next day, Luke suggests playing war again, and wishes he could be in a real war. Sameer reveals that, in his home country, he lived in the middle of a war, during which a bomb destroyed his house and killed his parents and brother. The friends are shocked at Sameer's story of the tragedy of war. Luke decides that they ought to play basketball instead. This picture book reveals the horrors of war in a gentle, sympathetic way. It would be a good book to get elementary-school kids talking about issues of war and peace. I have included this book in my online Gender Equality Bookstore.

Courtesy of Mother Daughter Book Club.com

When I was young, I often played war in the back yard with my cousins. We made forts out of cardboard and collected hard, pea-sized berries from the Chinaball tree in our yard. Each side pelted the other until our supply of berries ran out. Then we called a truce, collected the ammunition that had fallen between forts, and started again. I was reminded of my old pastime when I read Playing War, written by Kathy Beckwith and illustrated by Lea Lyon. It's summer and the children in the book are bored with playing basketball, lobbing water balloons and riding bikes. They decide to play war and divide into soldiers and enemies, then collect pinecones and sticks to use for ammunition. But their game changes when one of the friends, Sameer, talks about the real war that kids find in his homeland, and how it affects their lives. Playing War is a picture book intended for elementary school readers. It exposes young readers to current events in an age-appropriate way, and it provides an entrée to talk about some of the issues going on in many parts of the world where children are enlisted as soldiers, or their families are affected by fighting. Playing War is a good read-aloud book appropriate for younger girls in mother-daughter book clubs.