Wow! I was so impressed with this new book by Barbara Tift Blakey! It’s a book for children set at the time of the Cuban Missle crisis in the state of Washington. Right away it starts with action and holds your attention making you want to read the next chapter. One of the big things I loved about this book was the strong vocabulary like chifforobe and clambered; few things disappoint me more than a book for children that doesn’t contain rich vocabulary. Bertie’s War delivers on rich word content, great descriptive writing and more.
The most impressive thing for me however, was the lesson it teaches. I was reading along thinking this is a pretty good book and then I got to chapter 31, “In the Woodshed”, and wow, this chapter for me turned it into a Great book that I want to use with my kids. Before I get to that though, let’s get a better idea of what Bertie’s War is about.
Bertie is a girl who is imaginative and faced with the dilemma of if she should act grown up or play and be a kid. She’s also afraid of a lot of things and most defiantly afraid of doing anything wrong that will land her in trouble. Besides that she fears what’s going on in the world with people building bomb shelters and getting ready for communist missiles. Her brother and sister add some interesting family dynamics that many will probably relate to.
In Chapter 31 she learns a lesson that is tough to get and that many adults today would do well to learn. I won’t tell you what happens because that would spoil it but I will tell you that she figures out some things about God’s love, fear, expectations and selfishness.
Another great bonus about the book is that the author has made available discussion questions and Cuban missile information/timeline on her website so be sure to add those in when you read it with your kids.
If the authors’ name, Barbara Blakey, sounds familiar to you it may be. She’s the author of all the Total Language Plus study guides. Because of this I must say I went into reading this book wanting to like it but also having very high expectations. I can unreservedly say it met every expectation I had. Total Language Plus has high criteria for the books it chooses to use for study guides and in my opinion Bertie’s War would be good company with them.
Bertie's War is available lots of places but it's also available right at the Total Language Plus website which is really convenient for those of us already using and ordering curriculum! | 
