War is not the easy word to play around.

This book never let me get bored with short chapters and speedy development of the story. At first, I thought that Pete was a child with no consideration for his loving grandfather; however, being in his shoes at the age of ten-ish, the loving room-the own shelter-might mean more than the place to sleep. I really love that part when grandpa started his revenge and played around with him. Sometimes, grown-up men try to treat kids as they treated each other, but to let them learn about their behavior and life, they have to treat them as a little kid. Through experience, they will learn what is wrong and right. I believe because grandpa played the "war" with Pete, Pete got the change to think of the process of the war and what the meaning of the war is.

"Growing up, Pete," he said, "it isn't easy. Sometimes you have to do things you don't like." p.25

I totally sympathize with the phrase, but made me little sad. Grown-up meant more than "adult." They have to bear so many things that either they earned or not. By getting a year older, the society put one more responsibility and duty on the shoulders. It came as other forms and reasons, such as "for the loving one" or "for a living." However, sometimes, it became too heavy to tolerate that weight alone. 

"Maybe this is how wars get started and just go on and on," I said. "Your enemy does something bad to you, so you do something worse to him. Then he gets you back and you get him back and the whole thing gets bigger and bigger and meaner and meaner and in the end someone drops a bomb. Isn't that the way it happens?" p. 127

Generation who didn't experience the war thinks too easily about the war. The war is not the simple progress to get what we want, but the very complicated and dreadful wasting time on the desire of the power. Everything starts small, but grew bigger and bigger. Sometimes later, it became too massive to end it. The best example could be the world war 1 and 2. In my opinion, the World War 2 directly showed the disaster of the war. Through bloody fight, I bet some got the "historical" and "national" benefit, but there were too many victims who died and injured, not only because in the battlefield, but also captivated for the sexual slavery, the living-body test, and forced labor. War is not the easy word to play around. 

"How you shouldn't always do what your friends tell you to do. They're not living your life, you are. And you have to decide what's right or wrong." p.136

The War with Grandpa, Robert Kimmel Smith