While many books focus on children and their struggles during a war, no other book can express realistic views of morality, authority, and danger from a child’s perspective like Avi’s in The Button War.
The Button War takes place during the summer of 1914 in a small Polish village during World War 1. The war hits close to home after a bomb is dropped on the local schoolhouse, changing the lives of 12-year-old Patryk and his group of friends. While Russian, German, and French soldiers march into the village, Jurek, the unofficial and erratic leader of the group, decides to create a competition for the title of ‘King of the Buttons’. The rules, also made by Jurek, state that the friends must steal buttons off soldiers’ uniforms, and whomever could get the best buttons would win. Although the game began as a harmless way to pass the long summer days, events take a drastic turn when a boy gets beaten to death after he was caught stealing a button. Although the boys thought that the game would end after the devastating event, Jurek declares that nothing will stop the competition. Motivation among the boys begins to change from winning the title to stopping Jurek from becoming the ‘King of the Buttons’.
Although it is unlikely that anyone can relate to stealing buttons, Avi highlights other important aspects of growing into a teenager. He expresses the feeling of competition between a group of friends and what can happen when a game gets taken too far. Like William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this novel also accounts how adults can remain oblivious to the reckless nature of children.
The protagonist, Patryk, and antagonist, Jurek, also symbolize conflicting traits that we, as humans, tend to possess. Patryk tries to stay morally balanced at first, but after realizing that someone else is better than him, his competitive nature begins to cloud his better judgment. Jurek seemingly only seeks attention, but his underlying actions begin to prove that his hunger to win has no boundaries.
The Button War is far from a regular Young Adult novel, but instead shines a light on the timeless mentality of a teenager.