I'm Still Scared: The War Years (review)

Life's been clipping steadily along for the dePaola clan at 26 Fairmount Avenue (BCCB 6/99), but in the fifth volume of this series, school and domestic drama is upstaged by World War II, which leaves second-grader Tomie scrambling to understand what the coming fury will mean for him and his family. Whispers, rumors, and abruptly curtailed adult conversations fuel Tomie's anxiety and curiosity, but fortunately a direct question finally yields some reassurance from grandfather Tom ("'Will we all be killed?' I whispered. 'Oh, I don't think so,' Tom said. 'You know, Nana and I, your mom, and Uncle Charles went through the First World War and look at us. We're still here'"), and a frank talk with Mom demystifies air-raid drills and blackouts. Tight-knit, supportive family and neighbors do all they can to keep the children's lives as normal as possible, so amid details of black cloth draperies, nylon shortages, Uncle Charles' enlistment, and scary drills to the school's furnace room, Tomie also carries on with his dance lessons and long-awaited art lessons. Supplementing the spot art familiar from earlier titles are a scattering of Tomie's diary entries in which matters of national and personal importance are given equal weight: "At 4:00 P.M. the Congress met in the Capitol Building and declared WAR. I've never been in a war before." As readers leave Tomie on New Year's Eve in 1941, they can be certain his education's just beginning.