The war happened, but only Bobby Booclear remembers it. It lasted less than a day but, in less than six hours, an eleven-year-old boy became a war criminal. In Westchester County, New York. It's that kind of story. And Bobby is, finally, telling his version of what happened on that day, in 1954. In a rousing tale filled with cap guns, spin-the-bottle, flavored ice cubes, water bombs, fireworks and more hammy death scenes than your parents would ever let you watch, when you were little, first-time author Bob Nick Shields re-creates a long-ago summer and the thrill of innocence in a funny and touching fictional account of what it was like to be a kid before every family had a television. Advance praise for The Great Big War: ..".I will not use the word Salingeresque, which all writing teachers employ any time they read something original about youth and don't know how to categorize it. No, this is Shieldsesque, and no higher compliment can be offered..." - Stefan Kanfer, Best-selling author of Tough Without A Gun - The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife Of Humphrey Bogart "It's jazz. Bob Nick Shields writes jazz." - Jill Robinson, Best-selling author of Perdido and Bed/Time/Story