Ellen Wittlinger's newest  novel is set in 1962 in the midst of the Cold War. Fifth-grader Juliet, abandoned by her old pal Lowell who now wants to hang out with boys, meets a brash newcomer named Patsy. Soon an increasingly risky and reckless competition develops between the boys and the girls, resulting in an intense final faceoff. Set in the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, This Means War raises questions about the possibility of friendship between the sexes, about bullying, and about competition, on the playground and between nations.