War & Watermelon-Rich Wallace

War & Watermelon by Rich Wallace should have been written in the mid-90s.  Why you ask?  Because War & Watermelon would have been the perfect book for me to read in middle school.  It includes so many freakin’ awesome things that I find tremendously interesting: middle school football, learning how to act around girls, Woodstock, a truly amazing best friend, The Vietnam War, protest, a baseball pennant race, and a watermelon.

War & Watermelon takes place end of summer-beginning of the school 1969.  Brody Winslow is a boy trying to understand and figure out this whole growing up thing.  His brother is facing the draft, he’s transitioning to middle school, and he is starting to notice girls (and they are noticing him).

Usually, I am in the camp of wishing that a book was a little shorter, but as I read the last 50 pages, I found myself wondering how Rich Wallace was going to be able to end strong.  The story ended beautifully, but I found myself wanting more.  I would love to see a companion books that takes on the life of one of the supporting characters, much like Gary Schmidt did with Okay for Now and Wednesday Wars.