CM Magazine: This Means War!

________________ CM . . . . Volume V Number 4 . . . . October 16, 1998

This Means War!

Bev Spencer.
Richmond Hill, ON: Scholastic, 1998.
139 pp, paper, $4.99.
ISBN 0-590-12440-4.

Grades 4 - 6 / Ages 9 -12.
Review by Joan Marshall.

*** /4

Laney Hadley, determined to use her reporting skills to shame her family's landlord into staying an eviction order, suffers daily torment from her younger brother and sister. A neighbour, the indomitable Miss Applebaum, enlists the help of her nephew who is a lawyer, but it is really Laney's enthusiastic risk-taking th at saves the day as she attempts to sell her story to the city newspaper and stages a protest outside her apartment building.

excerpt:

We hurried inside and knocked on Miss Applebaum's door.
"The redoubtable Elaine! The ferocious Roger! How delightful to see you both. Is something terribly wrong?"
I started to tell her what I'd found out. Roger kept interrupting, trying to get his story in before mine. But somehow she got most of the facts.
"I don't believe it!" she gasped.
"Yeah? Well you'd better believe it!" Roger said. "And I found out!" He was still grinning.
"We thought we'd better talk to Mr. Wooley," I suggested.
"Yeah!" Roger said.
Miss Applebaum nodded. Her eyes flashed. "But this changes everything! One is simply astonished! I must phone Thornton at once! His services will be needed."

Full of laughs and addressing the very real problems of the countless moves many families must make, life without a father and annoying siblings, This Means War! will be enjoyed by students in grades 4 to 6.

Recommended.

Joan Marshall is the teacher-librarian/enrichment facilitator at the Henry G. Izatt Middle School in Fort Garry School Division.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@mts.net.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - OCTOBER 16, 1998.