There’s a new afterschool club at Ironville Middle School. Ms. Peterson is starting a video game club where the students will be playing “The Good War”, a new game based on World War II. They are divided into teams, the Axis and Allies, and they will be simulating a war they are just beginning to learn about in school. The students react in various ways to their newfound knowledge of Nazism and after a few weeks, one of the teams wants to be Axis for every round. With team captain Gavin Morgenstern in charge, they begin trying out German accents and clothes, seemingly unaware of these actions’ implications. It’s not long before symbols of hatred from that era of history begin to show up in the mannerisms and behavior of the kids on the Axis team, leading to a violent confrontation between the sides. The efforts of an older man outside the school to groom one of the players is particularly troubling. Told from the points of view of a cast of characters, this is a short but powerful read about how easy it is for hate and racism to take control.