As World War I rages, Patryk’s rural Polish village has been occupied by the Russian army for some time. When Patryk finds a button from a Russian uniform, bossy Jurek dares the five other boys in the social circle to obtain soldiers’ buttons of their own. The competitive game turns dangerous when the Russians are driven out by German soldiers, a much more hostile occupying force. Still, the boys continue to take risks to steal the soldiers’ buttons, egged on in particular by Jurek, who is obsessed with being the best and taking the title of Button King. Jurek is so insufferable that the other boys don’t want to let him win, even if it means putting themselves in grave danger. The riveting plot of this short novel is populated with appealing, well-drawn characters and successfully shows the intersection of childhood innocence with the reality and brutality of war. (Ages 8–12)

Renowned, award-winning author Avi pens a stark, unflinching tale of ordinary boys living in wartime as tensions — and desperations — mount among them.

Twelve-year-old Patryk knows little of the world beyond his tiny Polish village; the Russians have occupied the land for as long as anyone can remember, but otherwise life is unremarkable. Patryk and his friends entertain themselves by coming up with dares — some more harmful than others — until the Germans drop a bomb on the schoolhouse and the Great War comes crashing in. As control of the village falls from one nation to another, Jurek, the ringleader of these friends, devises the best dare yet: whichever boy steals the finest military button will be king. But as sneaking buttons from uniforms hanging to dry progresses to looting the bodies of dead soldiers — and as Jurek’s obsession with being king escalates — Patryk begins to wonder whether their “button war” is still just a game. When devastation reaches their doorstep, the lines between the button war and the real war blur, especially for the increasingly callous Jurek. Master of historical fiction Avi delivers a fierce account of the boys of one war-torn village who are determined to prove themselves with a simple dare that spins disastrously out of control.