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    Countdown
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    Countdown
    Audiobook7 hours

    Countdown

    Written by Deborah Wiles

    Narrated by Emma Galvin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that's hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall.

    It's 1962, and it seems that the whole country is living in fear. When President Kennedy goes on television to say that Russia is sending nuclear missiles to Cuba, it only gets worse. Franny doesn't know how to deal with what's going on in the world-no more than she knows how to deal with what's going on with her family and friends. But somehow she's got to make it through.

    Award-winning author Deborah Wiles has created a documentary novel that will put you right alongside Franny as she navigates a dangerous time in both her history and our history. It is an experience you will never forget.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 11, 2011
    ISBN9780307879660
    Unavailable
    Countdown
    Author

    Deborah Wiles

    DEBORAH WILES is the award-winning author of Each Little Bird That Sings, a National Book Award finalist; Love, Ruby Lavender, an ALA Notable Children's Book, a Children's Book Sense 76 Pick, an NCTE Notable Book for the Language Arts, and a New York Public Library Book for Reading and Sharing; Freedom Summer, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; The Aurora County All-Stars, a New York Public Library Book for Reading and Sharing; and One Wide Sky. She lives in Georgia.www.deborahwiles.com

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    Reviews for Countdown

    4/5

    210 ratings37 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A "documentary novel." Excellent historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      I received this book through a giveaway. It isn't a book that I would normally have gravitated to, so I'm pleased that I received it and have the chance to give it a glowing review. The setting is 1962 and more specifically October of 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. The reader gets a a real sense of this time period through the author's storytelling technique of combining a narrative along with photos, quotes, song lyrics and more. I thought it was just a wonderful way to make the story come alive. Although I was only 4 years of age in 1962, it also brought back many memories from my own childhood.

      The story is centered around 11 year old Franny Chapman. Her father is a military officer based at Andrew's Air Force in the DC area. Her family also includes her younger brother Drew, who has dreams of being an astronaut, her father's Uncle Otts, college age sister and political activist, Jo Ellen and her task master mother.

      Deborah Wiles is able to seamlessly blend and weave the feelings of the United States during 1962 along with those of Franny and the problems and fears every adolescent girl experiences. Wiles writing seemed effortless and the story was so enjoyable that I finished it quickly. This book would be a wonderful read for young adults wanting to learn more about this time in our nations history I recommend it highly to all age groups.
    • 5/5
      Wow. I love it when a book lives up to its hype. Deborah Wiles has outdone herself with Countdown. Without the documentary aspects, this would have been a solid story in its own right, but the inclusion of speeches, photographs, lyrics from the early 1960s gives such a "you-are-there" immediacy to the book. Historical fiction like you've never seen it...
    • 5/5
      I love the characters Wiles creates and Franny is one of her best. Black and white photographs as well as snippets of songs and speeches give an immediacy to the history of the early 60's that impact the narrative.
    • 3/5
      On the one hand it was a fairly typical historical fiction. I had some reservations about the info dumps of various historical figures, especially as I wasn't sure how they fit into the story. On the other hand I enjoyed the production elements like the newsflashes and songs quotes. But that was problematic too as I'm not sure younger readers would know "Moon River" and some of the other references.
    • 4/5
      In the fall of 1962, Franny's outlook on the world is being drastically altered. Her sister has gone off to college and joined a secret society (a movement for racial equality), her uncle is increasingly batty, and they have actually used their air-raid drills in an emergency. As the United States changes, so must Franny and her family. Peppered throughout the book are actual snipets of popular advertisements, speeches, jingles, and radio announcements given during that time period which provides the reader with a better understanding of the changes Franny is living through. I really enjoyed this book - especially the pop culture tidbits throughout. It made me feel as though I could better understand the time she was coming from and compare/add it to what I already knew about that time period. Before reading this book I, sadly, didn't know much about the Cuban Missle Crisis, but because of the primary sources and the excellent story I feel much better informed as well as entertained.
    • 4/5
      At first the format of the book threw me, but I liked seeing all the images and lyrics of things from 1961 & 1962. Although I wonder how this will play with students when there is little context of who the people are and what the songs are. It would be great to add that media and background as an extension! This book examines what it was like to grow up during the Cuban Missile Crisis, deal with civil defense drills, and be a kid in that era. Franny is dealing with friend issues and family drama in this context. She's a likeable, long suffering middle child. There are nonfiction essays embedded in the text as well. It did grow on me as I read, and I would pick up the next installment of the series!
    • 3/5
      Wiles, D. (2010). Countdown. New York: Scholastic Press.377 pages.Appetizer: The first book in the Sixties Trilogy, Countdown is set in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and when Americans were certain that at any minute the Russians would bomb the U.S. Franny is an eleven-year-old with her hands full. As the middle child, she often feels ignored by her parents and teachers. Her big sister, Jo Ellen is keeping secrets from her. Her Uncle Otts is having trouble remembering that he's not a soldier anymore and she's not certain that her best friend Margie wants to be her best friend anymore. Plus, her crush, Chris, has just moved back into the neighborhood.Wiles refers to Countdown as a "documentary novel." That seems as fitting a term for it as any. Surrounding the chapters of Franny's story are posters, song lyrics and biographical sketches of major figures from that time period.When I first picked up Countdown to read, I was a little nervous. It is a thick book, my friends. Did I have time for this? The energy? Then I opened it and was greeted by pages and pages of images, newspaper headlines and quotes. I was reminded of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a 540-page long picturebook.Also, as a random note: Here's a picture of a boy that looks a lot like Hugo. How fun is that? Brian Selznik, when will you immortalize me in a masterpiece? Apparently the boy's name is Max and he wasn't cast for the Hugo movie. Oversight!Internetz: Brain! What are you supposed to be doing?ShelBrain: *sheepish* Reviewing Countdown.Internetz: Don't you think you should be doing that then?ShelBrain: Fiiiiine.Countdown is more text heavy the Hugo Cabret of course. As a reader, I did find myself tempted to skip over some of the biographical sketches (I know I would have when I was eleven), but I remained strong.About 100ish pages in, I had a child-like reaction to the book. (AKA juvenile!) My inner 10-year-old boy reared his wee pimple-free head. (I don't mean to imply I actually am part boy. Rather, I often react to books like a young male reader.) My inner ten-year-old rebelled, saying "Deborah Wiles! You're trying to trick me into learning! I don't like to be tricked! There are too many words! What happened to the pictures! I want more pictures! I like being able to skip through ten pages in under a minute! Bring the pictures back or I'll stop reading!!!!!!"I stopped reading the book for over a week. I was frozen. Dead in the water. With sharks circling and me clinging to a piece of drift wood, weeping and praying for rescue.I suspect that most readers don't have the problem I had. Most reviews of Countdown have been so sparly, glowy that you have to wear sunglasses just to read them. I think I wound up with skyscraper-high expectations, when I should have been expecting to be able to enjoy a nice two-story suburban home.(I have no idea where that housing metaphor came from. I think all the talk of the housing crisis has finally invaded my brain synapses. Or other brain anatomy stuff. Oh, science.Despite the fact that the book didn't meet my expectations, I was still surprised by the world Wiles created. I couldn't believe the lack of privacy Franny had throughout the story. There was also this scene where Franny mentions that some of the students actually brought her teacher apples. My response was, Really?! Really?! ...how come nobody give me gifts.Dinner Conversation: "I am eleven years old, and I am invisible.I am sitting at my desk, in my classroom, on a perfect autumn afternoon--Friday, October 19, 1962. My desk is in the farthest row, next to the windows" (p. 16)."It's the air-raid siren, screaming its horrible scream in the playground, high over our heads on a thousand-foot telephone pole--and we are outside. Outside. No desk, no turtle, no cover.We are all about to die" (p. 21)."What's worse: your best friend doesn't feel like your best friend anymore, or the whole neighborhood thinks your family is an embarrassment?Or maybe it's worse that you wouldn't acknowledge your uncle, Franny.Maybe I'll just stay here, hidden behind the bush, forever" (p. 45)."Nobody asks about my hard day," I say. I apply Jo Ellen's red lipstick thickly to my thin lips. "Nobody even cares that I was stuck outside during the air-raid drill and everybody panicked and cried and bled to death. But no...that's not important in this family, because I'm not important. Daddy hardly said two words to me today, but he plays a whole ball game with Drew" (p. 84).Tasty Rating: !!!
    • 5/5
      'Countdown' by Deborah Wiles is journey back into the 1960s via Franny Chapman's experiences and news pictures and reports of the times. Countdown brought so many vivid memories for me like bomb shelters (we had one in our basement)and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember my teacher's hands shaking when we heard the announcement over the PA. We rode home on the school bus with a lot of frightened friends.Franny is only eleven but she had so much to deal with!She is worried about Russia and wants Khrushchev to understand that we are human beings and we don't need to scare each other. She couldn't understand why her best friend dropped her for a snobbish and uncaring girl. Where is her sister? Things arent't matching up with her. She loves her Uncle Otts who lived with them. Why did he seem to be in another world? Why is her younger brother always reading and holding on tight to his favorite book, 'Our Friend, the Atom".Frannie, survives all of the above and learns about herself and her family in a very uneasy age. This book is richly illustrated and has many of the poignant lyrics from songs of the times running though the book. I cared a lot about Frannie, her brother and her older sister. Her parents seemed distant but I think they were so wrapped up in the times that they couldn't see the anguish that their children were going through.This is a very well written book and I recommend it to everyone who has lived through the sixties or wants to know more about them.
    • 4/5
      The year is 1962. All Franny can think about is how her best friend is not really such a great friend anymore, and the cute boy who just moved in across the street. Until the Cold War escalates and she realizes that her cozy life may not be quite so cozy anymore. Any minute, the Soviet Union could drop a nuclear bomb on her hometown and literally end the world. So she practices duck and cover drills amidst an atmosphere of anxiety and fear.True confession: I am totally caught up in the 60's trend that is going on right now. I watch Mad Men, wear pencil skirts, and just bought a mid-century modern coffee table. So I was very excited to read this book and was well-rewarded. This book has a great mix of history and fiction. Kids will totally relate to Franny's social problems--who hasn't had a friend go off the deep end? At the same time, they'll find out about one of the scariest and tense times in United States history that they may not be very familiar with. The author mixes transcripts of actual newsfootage, presidential speeches, and commercials, as well as songs, photographs, and movie stills with her story to really bring the time period to life. However, there are also funny and touching moments to lightened the oppressive aura of dread. Franny's family seems totally realistic, especially to middle schoolers, who will recognize how a family members can be completely annoying one minute and completely lovable the next.Well-paced and fascinating, students will both root for and relate to Franny. The historical backdrop is on display through various historical artifacts sprinkled throughout the book. Reluctant readers will enjoy the story, while advanced readers can examine the historical perspectives. This is an engaging book that I can highly recommend to anyone. I'm looking forward to the next installment.Reading level: 5th--8th grade
    • 4/5
      Quick and fun, I think this would be an interesting and educational read for elementary and middle school readers. Wiles combines easily relatable issues (fighting with a best friend, family tension) with less-understandable historical themes.
    • 2/5
      The documentary novel Countdown by Deborah Wiles is an interesting and riveting tale of a girl who goes by the name of Franny Champman. Franny is a young girl in the fifth grade living during the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis, in 1962. Along with the worries of being bombed, Franny has to face several complications along the way, such as the problem of her crazed Uncle Otts, her troubles with her ex-bestfriend, Margie, or her sister Jo Ellen being away from home from long periods of time, away at college. As things grow worse and worse for Franny, she begins to feel more and more invisible. As time progresses, Franny feels left in the dust and abandoned by her family, who suddenly becomes occupied with greater problems.Towards the end of the novel, Franny uncovers that people do truly care about her. Her family grows more and more supportive towards her and she sees that she truly does matter to people. Her friendship with Margie is restored and she makes several new friends along the way. A romantic intrest sparks up between Franny and the boy next door, Chris. Jo Ellen returns home and Franny and Jo Ellen restore the sisterly bond that was lost long ago, and Uncle Otts is finally at peace with the family.Throughout the novel, one thing that was taken into consideration, was the character development. Deborah Wiles had excellent character development, especially with the main character, Franny Chapman. Franny wasn't portrayed the way a typical eleven year old girl is usually portrayed. Yes, she wore headbangs to school daily and dressed in dresses and cute things like that, but underneath all of that, the author shows us a little girl who is absolutely terrified. She has no idea whether or not she is going to wake up and live through the next day, because, in reality, Franny and the rest of America could have been bombed at any second. Franny is terrified, she is stressed, and is frantic. Deborah Wiles does an excellent job of portraying these emotions, without directly stating it.Although the character development was fantastic, the novel was too much of an easy read. The novel easily could have taken me less than a week to finish, and the same goes to others that have read it. Half of the book was just images, thus why the novel was categorized as a documentary novel, but the images took up a lot of where Deborah Wiles could have put in more detail. Her transitioning from sequence to sequence was also rather quick and lacked detail, making the story confusing at points. If Deborah Wiles had added detail, instead of rushing through the novel, the novel would have been more enjoyable to readers such as myself.The character development was spot-on, however, the lack of detail really killed the novel for me. I really wasn't impressed by the novel, due to it's simplicity. If the author had taken more time and put more detail into it, the novel would have been much more enjoyable. The only major problem with the novel was the lack of detail, which ruined the novel for me.
    • 4/5
      I thought this was interesting, but I couldn't really figure out if it's working or not ... set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it's a look at more-or-less daily life of Franny, the 12 year old daughter of an Air Force officer. Some of her trials and tribulations are the typical schoolyard kind, while others are more specific to the time period.Aesthetically, I liked the visual pieces inserted between the chapters, collages of archival news footage, Cold War, civil rights, pop culture, song lyrics, government propaganda. It really captured a certain style ... especially taken together with text interludes that used a 1960s social studies textbook tone to deliver biographical snippets of influential 1960s people. The perplexing part for me was ... okay, I don't think there's A WEALTH of good literature out there for kids about this time period, so for many readers, I would guess this is a first look, and given that, does it make sense for this kind of information to be presented so winkingly? If you're 12 years old NOW, and have never had that insanely cheery, civics-type textbook, is this going to mean anything to you? It's not even clear it's supposed be to referencing something, there's nothing to tell you, other than personal experience, not to take it at face value.This is a little bit before my time, but not SO much before that I don't remember the fear of the Soviets and sitting around in school thinking The Bomb was going to come any minute (early on, the incident that really resonated with me was when Franny and her little brother make a plan to find each other and run home together in the event of an actual air raid, regardless of what the drills tell you to do, this felt so true to me). I'd be curious at how convincing this feels for someone who does remember the Kennedy administration more directly.Overall, I enjoyed this but I'm not 100% convinced it's as successful a book as the author wants it to be.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but it was fantastic. Wile's story is strong and I enjoyed how she wove quotes/news reel clips/etc with the story. The terror that Franny, her friends and family, feel because of the Cuban missile crisis is both realistic and palpable. Emma Galvin gives Franny a voice that sticks with you and keeps you interested. I didn't feel like I was listening to Franny so much as living alongside her. The end of the book involves an incident with Franny and her former best friend and it's a terrifying accident, but it's written so wonderfully that you just can't stop listening. I don't know what the print version looks like, but I absolutely loved the audio book. It was a such a full experience that I can't wait for the next of this sixties series to be available.
    • 4/5
      The 1060's were a time of change in the United States. Children in school were taught to "duck and cover" in case of nuclear attack. Franny's dad is in the air force, her sister is in college and not coming home, her uncle is reliving an old war and she is fighting with her best friend.
    • 4/5
      This book breaks new ground for historical fiction, by inserting ephemera of historical fact into its pages. By doing this, the story is better understood by its intended audience: upper elementary and middle schoolers. By doing this, the history of a particular event, the Cuban Missile Crisis, is fleshed out. I only wish the main character had been a high school student. Why? Modern American History is not studied until high school, but high schoolers are unlikely to read a book about an eleven year old. Still, I hope that authors of young adult historical fiction will sit up and take note. This not-so-popular genre might get a boost from adding visuals to the text.
    • 2/5
      The book was okay. I'm not sure who the audience would be. There are numerous references to events and pop culture of the early 60's that probably only someone who lived during that time would have knowledge of. This is the first of three books on the 1960's. The story centers on the Cuban Missile Crisis and what daily life was like for children living near Washington DC during that dangerous and uncertain time period.
    • 3/5
      Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that's hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall. It's 1962, and it seems the whole country is living in fear.
    • 4/5
      really liked Franny. I love seeing characters grow in books and Franny does. Her family is great and shows different emotions and opinions about what is going on in the world, especially with the Cuban missile crisis. Not only is Franny's story told, but interspersed throughout the book are pictures, song lyrics, speeches, and short biographies about key historical figures of the time. So though 400 pages might seem like a lot, it really wasn't a long book. I keep saying this, but I liked this book more than I thought I would at the beginning.
    • 4/5
      A fairly typical tween coming of age story that is remarkable for it's format. It's historical fiction, set in the 1960's during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Civil Rights and more, which I found totally great as that was my youth. Included within the story are primary source documents. Excerpts from speeches, photos from newspapers and more which really enhanced the experience. My question is will kids read it?
    • 4/5
      Gotta ask this upfront: Does every author these days have to write a trilogy?"Countdown" is the first in Deborah Wiles's "three companion novels about the 1960s." Spliced in the narrative by 11-year-old Franny are scrapbook-like pages with snippets of '60s songs, nuke-attack guides, President Kennedy's speeches, and a touching account of Fannie Lou Hamer.The Cuban Missile Crisis serves as the looming backdrop for this story of a preteen life not so different from those of kids in this new century. Wiles weaves in the pop culture and politics of the era with only a couple of anachronistic phrases marring the authenticity. (They were more than compensated for by Franny's use of "heavens to Murgatroyd," an expression due for revival.)Poor Franny is saddled with a great uncle still suffering from the trauma of the Great War, a dad who flies the president around and is rarely home, an older sister who is a civil rights activist, a brainy kid brother, and a mom who sends out thin streams of cigarette smoke and uncaring vibes. Oh, and the best frenemy and the cute boy across the street. Plus a dopey, heroic dog.Both the story and the background sections pulled me in, but I wonder if today's kids of Franny's age would get past the fact that this is about ancient history, or the first historic photos section that precedes the start of Franny's story. So, 11-year-olds, what do you say?
    • 4/5
      The story and history mix of the 60's is a nice touch and right on, inclucing small details.
    • 4/5
      Countdown was an interesting mix of historical fiction novel and 1962 history bytes. The main story was about 11-year-old Franny dealing with a stressed out mother, mostly absent father, crazy uncle, perfect younger brother, and an older sister who is in college and not around for her much anymore. Franny's school life is also full of problems as her best friend becomes increasingly hostile to her and Franny seems to be invisible to her teacher. Plus she's dealing with bomb scares and political unrest.I found the mix of history and coming-of-age story very original and enjoyable but I wonder if elementary school kids will like it as much as I did. My hestitation is that the interruption of the history bytes will take them out of the story and cause their interest to flag. I will pass this to my 11-yo daughter to see what she thinks. For an adult read though, this is great.
    • 5/5
      Reason for Reading: I enjoy historical fiction but the amount of photographs and media images in the book was what intrigued me the most.If anybody had told me I was going to absolutely love a book that's main historical setting was the Cuban Missile Crisis I would have said "Sorry, I don't even read that kind of political book" then the next thing I'd say would be "BTW, what is the Cuban Missile Crisis?"The book takes place over the last few weeks in October, 1962 and is somewhat autobiographical using the author's personal life and memories to tell the story of growing up in the sixties. Taking the author's place is Franny Chapman, an ordinary girl with a little brother who can do no wrong in her parents' eyes. It's the story of Franny's life; her best friend is starting to avoid her and becoming friends with a girl whose mother is divorced who Franny is not allowed to have anything to do with. Her uncle, great uncle really, lives with them as he raised her father, but he is slipping into dementia, calls everyone soldier and is embarrassing the whole family to the neighbourhood. Franny's father is in the Air Force and always going off on trips seeming never to be there when the worst family crises arise. Franny's older sister, who is in college, is up to something mysterious, something she has disagreed with their mother about, and then one night she just doesn't come back home.The background is the height of the cold war. The children are inundated with the "duck and cover" routine should a nuclear bomb hit. They have practice drills and watch in class movies to make sure that instinctively they know what to do. The Bay of Pigs has ended and there is talk of the Russians attacking with a nuclear bomb. Then President Kennedy comes on the TV and explains the situation in Cuba involving the Russians and nuclear missiles aimed at the United States. The media quickly label this the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also spread throughout the book are the rumblings of the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. As the book ends, I believe the set up has been made that the background of the second book will be Civil Rights.The story is just simply fantastic. I read the book in a day as I just couldn't put it down. The relationships between all the children were very real and the attitudes and lifestyle of the sixties shone through making the story very authentic. A very unique aspect of this book, which has been called a "documentary novel" is that in the middle of the ongoing story it will suddenly turn to a non-fiction essay on a person who has been mentioned. These are very interesting and flow right along with the story feeling perfectly natural in their placement. We learn of both Jack and Jackie Kennedy this way, along with Harry S. Truman, Pete Seeger, Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer and others.What makes this book truly amazing though is the combination of text with photographs and graphic media. Every so often, there is a graphic section which enhances the story telling through photographs, quotes, headlines, cartoons, posters, song lyrics and much more. These follow the storyline and political events are introduced through the graphic media before it becomes a part of the textual story which really enhances and makes clear the understanding of otherwise potentially difficult topics. But the photos also just immerse you in the culture and era with sports events, space accomplishments, popular singers and stark photos of reality.I've never read anything quite like this before and think the combination of text and media has been put together brilliantly and with a compelling, well-written story this is a fantastic book. I am eagerly await the second book!
    • 4/5
      A gripping Middle Grade novel which might also be educational - shh!The first of Deborah Wiles's Sixties Trilogy, Countdown takes a fresh look at a coming-of-age story in the 1960s. Franny Chapman is a typical 12 year old girl, who reads Nancy Drew, has fights with her best friend, worries about how her hair looks, and has a crush on the boy down the street. We've all been there, and hundreds of books have been there as well. What Countdown does differently is it takes us back to the 1960s with a series of actual photos, news clippings, song lyrics, quotes, and ads from the 1960s, dispersed throughout the novel like a scrapbook. The real photographs bring an element to the novel which makes the era all that much more tangible for the reader.While Franny Chapman was worrying about attending her first boy-girl party, she also worried about the frightening world in which she lived - the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK, fall out shelters, and practicing how to duck and cover under her desk at school. Being twelve was hard. Being twelve in 1962 was exponentially harder.Wiles writes with seemingly effortless ease about a difficult time in our nation's history, while never talking down to her audience, and powerfully tapping into those difficult tween years.There is one scene early in the novel where Franny goes outside on the playground at recess, and isn't sure what to do with herself, who to play with, and is full of that insecure, unsure nervousness we all felt at that age. "...without a book I don't want to be alone at recess - it looks bad and people think there's something wrong with you. Already there's a kickball game going on. Do I want to play kickball? No. I'm a terrible kicker. Do I want to play jacks with Carol and Marcy? No. They don't like me all that much. Do I want to jump rope? I'm a great jump-roper, and there's my best friend, Margie, in the jump rope line, waiting her turn. She's deep in conversation with Gale Hoffman, a girl who lives in the neighborhood behind ours and whose mother lets her wear lipstick already and do whatever she wants." Takes you back, doesn't it? But then, a few lines later..."But before Gale can smile, before anyone can answer the sky cracks wide open with an earsplitting, shrieking wail. It's the air-raid siren, screaming its horrible scream in the playground, high over our heads on a thousand-foot telephone pole -- and we are outside. Outside. No desk, no turtle, no cover. We are all about to die."As an adult reading a children's books, I obviously got more of a jolt from seeing some of the photos from Life magazine than some tweens might, but the novel was not all nuclear missiles and the civil rights movement. Franny learns a few dance moves from her older sister, she eats TV dinners and talks about a brand-new restaurant called McDonald's. When I first picked up Countdown, I wasn't sure what age group for which it was intended, and the publisher recommends ages 9 to 12, but I think that this book would reach older kids as well as some younger. It was wonderful and I highly recommend this book to be read WITH your children to make for a truly memorable experience.
    • 4/5
      Get ready to step back to 1962.This documentary novel combines story and nonfiction in a unique way, presenting the reader with tons of archival photos, ads, songs, newspaper headlines, etc. in order to create the feel of and give background knowledge of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the events leadint up to it. While I felt like the story got a little lost in the shuffle, the book as a whole is truly a feat. I'll be looking forward to the next two installments.
    • 5/5
      I pretty much read this book in about 2 sittings. WOW! If you were growing up during the Cuban Missile Crisis as I was, you must read the book.

      It is a story of a family living in Maryland where eleven year old Franny is the main character. The story is all wrapped up in the emotions of the music of the tims, the leaders, the communications, the Civil Rights movement.

      That was a scary time and I like Franny didn't understand what was going on but I knew enough to be afraid.

      I am glad to share my book with you. I actually bought it after attending a session with Deborah Wiles, the author, back in November. Unfortunately, I didn't stand in her long line to get it signed, but I would so like to talk to her after reading the book. The genre is a documentary novel.
    • 3/5
      A clever book. Part fiction, part non-fiction. I really enjoyed the structure of the this book. Wiles inserts true historical events from 1962 into portions of her narrative tale of a girl "lost" in the many unspoken dynamics of her family. I would have thought that a style like this one would have been intrusive, but it wasn't. At times, I even disliked parting from the non-fiction material to have to turn back to the storyline. The difficulty with this book lies with the target audience. Written for young adolescents, it's hard to see kids reading this independently. Under the guidance of a teacher, this is a better fit. A teacher or adult can draw out the striking parallels between the culture of fear in 62 and the same today. Wiles has a great concept book here and it was fun taking a trip back in time. I'd love to see more books like this.
    • 2/5
      Parts of this story are really interesting and parts of them are very slow. I liked Fanny and Drew and there were definitely times when I wanted to strangle Margie. There were a couple of threads that were left hanging or for the reader to infer. As an adult with a strong grasp of american history I was able to figure out what was going on but as a kid still only learning history I'm not sure I would have figured it out. The long random tangents about historical characters were interesting but sometimes went on long enough that they felt like not fun school.
      Initially I was really excited about the audio interruptions from famous speeches, songs from the sixties and informational works, but as I realized that they had someone imitating everything and it wasn't the actual speeches I got kind of disappointed with them.
    • 4/5
      Countdown is set in the days just before and after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book is chock full of news articles, song lyrics, political cartoons, catch prases, etc. which contribute hugely to the atmosphere of the story. Franny, a 5th grader whose father is a pilot in the air force, narrates her story. Along with the usual 5th grade issues of liking a neighbor boy, fighting with friends, the first boy-girl party and sibling rivalry, Franny is also a worrier. All the cold war news has her awake at night worrying about the end of the world. Thanks to the notes at the back of the book, I discovered that the story is vaguely auto-biographical. I liked that personal aspect. There was one glaring historical error regarding the length of the Truman presidency, which appears in one of the "school report" style graphics. Overall, this is a great read and one I will probably give to my own "fifth grader" to read.