My Never Ending List

It’s been a day since I finished listening to this novel and I already miss Howie, Denny, and Miss Gossim. World War II is affecting everyone including the students in Miss Gossim’s classroom and Howie tells us firsthand in this novel how things look from his perspective. Everyone is either missing someone, donating to the war or troubled because of this war. Times are tough and inside Miss Gossim classroom, Howie and his classmates talk about their war efforts.   Howie feels his teacher is an excellent 5^th grade teacher and when he hears she is going to be fired, he takes it upon himself to remedy the situation because as the title says “don’t you know there’s a war on?” The title of this book is the explanation for many replies that occur in this novel and I found myself jumping to this punch line before the narrator had a chance to read the words himself, this bringing a smile to my face. There was an enormous comfort as I listened to this novel, this feeling of ease and enjoyment as I lost myself in Howie’s world. It reminded me of the TV series Leave It to Beaver, the innocence of the characters, the great simple storylines with the morals and values placed throughout it. I was sad when the CD’s were over; I wanted more of Howie and Miss Gossim. The language of the characters, they spoke with ease, their dialogue straight and direct, no extra words or sophistication added to confused me. The narrator’s voice, at first I was disappointed, as his voice didn’t have a lot of varying decree of pitch but it worked well as it matched the novel, soothing and composed. Another terrific novel by Avi.

4.5 stars