The Boys Start the War

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Boy/Girl Battle series begins with The Boys Start the War, a book I had never picked up until late last week. Lately we have been struggling with bedtime reading. It seems we have somewhere to be on most evenings, and the thing that gets shorted is reading at bedtime. We might find time to read for a short while, or not at all. Since I always read a chapter book and picture books because I have children at ages where both types of books are necessary, bedtime reading takes a while.

So, I've felt like we have been slipping in our reading. When we miss nights there isn't a lot of continuity to what we are doing, and once we miss one night, it seems easier to miss more. We did read the third Sassy book by Sharon Draper last month. My middle daughter loved it, but my oldest daugher had already read it to herself, so she wasn't very interested in listening to me read.

Last week I decided to bring home The Boys Start the War by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I have managed to check these books out to kids at school without ever reading them myself. Instantly my oldest daughter was hooked, begging for me to read more. And quickly after that, my middle daughter was interested. One night we managed to read seven chapters. I could have read more because the girls were so enjoying listening to the different tricks the Malloy girls and Hatford boys continued to play on each other. From the first prank, when the Hatford boys collect and distribute dead animals along the riverbank by the Malloy's house to the Malloys hiding on the Hatford's roof, scaring them with their strange noises, there is never a dull moment in the war between these boys and girls.

Luckily, even though we read this one so quickly, we are still able to read more about these kids. There are NINE books in this series. We have already begun the second one, which started off with the boys taking a camping trip. Last night at the end of the second chapter the girls were begging for more and bedtime reading is sure to take place again tonight. Yay for this great series!