It’s The War Of The Sexes In This Fun Book

Forget the Hatfields and the McCoys; in “The Boys Start the War,” Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has brought readers a new set of feuding clans whose escapades are sure to have you in stitches.

Nothing will be the same for the Hatford boys now that three girls have moved into the house where their best friends used to live. Wally and his brothers are appalled at this misfortune, and soon come up with an ingenious plan to make the Malloy girls want to move back to Ohio. They don’t suspect, however, that Caroline and her sisters will find them out and plan revenge.

And so the war starts and the fun begins, as the Hatford Hooligans and the Malloy Musketeers try to top each other with tricks and pranks. What with stolen flashlights and swiped underwear, floating cakes, floating bodies and floating heads. Naylor keeps the pages turning right down to a side-splitting end involving a rabid prisoner in a tool shed.

Pick up “The Boys Start the War” and decide whose side you’re on. Then, follow along as the boys and girls each experience their share of wins and losses. Whether you’re rooting for the Hatfords as they drop dead fish in the river, or for the Malloys as they drop in their sister, you’re in for plenty of laughs.

When you’re finished, be sure to check out the book’s two sequels: “The Girls Get Even” and “Boys Against Girls.”