The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle is an intriguing piece of historical fiction from the point of view of a young teenaged boy. Robert moves with his mother to a small community on the eastern seaboard of the United States during the Second World War. Robert and his cousin Elliot spend their time listening to reports of the war, doing household chores and visiting a mysterious Germany artist who lives nearby. The family the boys live in also has to deal with the personal stresses of worrying about poverty, a father in the war and Germany subs bombing ships off the nearby coast.
Robert experiences concern over his fathers time flying bombing raids over Germany, his mother’s unwillingness to talk about his father, his Grandfathers dominate and often cruel nature and his suspicions about Abel the German artist who is widely thought to be a spy by almost everyone in the community except Elliot an artist himself. The story unveils the ugliness of human nature to be suspicious of what we don’t understand and to prey on the weaker members of our society. The story also deals with issues of family strife, abuse, and the lack of communication that often plagues dysfunctional families.
Lisle, Janet Taylor (2000) The Art Of Keeping Cool. New York: Athenum.
