Countdown
by Deborah Wiles

    COUNTDOWN by Deborah Wiles
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  5/1/10
    Publisher:  Scholastic
    Reviewed by:  Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
    Rating:  5 Stars


    It's 1962.  It's all about your collection of 45's, boy/girl parties, TV dinners, and McDonald's.  JFK is
    president, the Civil Rights Movement is just beginning, and Communists are evil.

    Franny is eleven years old and in the fifth grade.  She has an older sister who is just starting college and a
    younger brother who dreams of becoming an astronaut.  Her father is an Air Force pilot who flies out of
    Andrews Air Force Base, her mother is a busy, bossy homemaker, and her Uncle Otts is crazy.

    As Franny struggles to make her way through fifth grade, she has the added challenge of dealing with the fear
    of every American - the threat of nuclear war.  Bomb shelters and air raid drills are part of daily life in her
    community.  It was bad enough that the Communists were threatening the U.S. from the Soviet Union, but
    now there's the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The Russians have set up shop in Cuba and have installed nuclear
    missiles.  They are pointed at and capable of destroying major cities all over the country.

    Life for Franny is all about succeeding in school, pleasing her parents, putting up with the frustration of her
    siblings and irritable best friends, and at the same time, learning the "duck and cover" drills and survival skills
    necessary to live through an atomic blast.  Life isn't easy for a fifth grader these days.

    COUNTDOWN is a fascinating account of one young girl's experience during the early 1960's.  Author
    Deborah Wiles takes readers deep into the time period through Franny's thoughts and emotions.  Wiles makes
    Franny come alive as she describes her fear, her hopes and dreams, her guilt, and her pleasures.  Mixed in
    with her story are factual accounts of the tumultuous times, political speeches, advertisements, and survival
    instructions that provide an accurate timeline of the period.

    COUNTDOWN is history come to life for both teen readers of today and readers who have personal
    memories of those trying times.  Don't miss this one.