Customer Reviews

Countdown

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
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It's not just that Ms. Wiles so evidently has done her homework, and so clearly recalls personal feelings of that time; it is her absolute gift for recounting those dreadful tween feelings, of change, insecurity, and peer pressure, with that hideous Missile Crisis as a backdrop!

I first "discovered" her when I picked up EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS. That one helped me through the death of a close friend, and I never put it down till I was finished. Then, as now, I cried, I laughed, and I felt as if I had just had some sort of magical catharsis happen to me, through a children's book! I am a children's librarian, so I believe EVERYONE should read children's books--they are so life-facilitating, and one never outgrows them--but if you are only going to read ONE children's book this year, COUNTDOWN is the one.

I feel as if I have waited a very long time for this book; after I voraciously read, and made sure our library owned, everything Ms. Wiles has published, I could not bear that there were no more. Trite as this sounds, it was so worth the wait. Now, I have to settle down to anticipation of Book Two of this trilogy! <sigh>

Give this book to the discerning upper-elementary/tween reader. That child will see himself/herself in every chapter. My fifth birthday was the day JFK was killed, so most of these echoes are very dim for me, yet I also saw myself.

Ms. Wiles, you are a gift to every reader and librarian everywhere.

It's 1962 and 11 year-old Franny Chapman is having problems. Her best friend seems to be edging away from her, she's worried her older sister Jo Ellen might be a communist, and her perfect younger brother Drew is obsessed with being an astronaut and constantly reads his favorite book, "Our Friend the Atom." Her mom is stressed out, her father is a pilot at Andrews Air Force Base, and her Uncle Otts (who lives with them) is losing his mind. On top of all this are tensions between the USA and the USSR and the escalating Cuban Missile Crisis. With regular air raid drills and nuclear missiles aimed at the country, suddenly the atom doesn't seem so friendly anymore.

I was blown away by the format of this book which is interspersed with information from around 1962 such as advertisements for bomb shelters, Bert the Turtle "duck and cover" posters, b&w photos, news broadcasts, songs and speeches, and essays on notable people - adding a wonderful element of history to the narrative. Unfortunately, it took me well over 100 pages to feel much of an interest in the story. Franny is likeable enough but we're given such a short view of her life that I never felt much of a connection - and I personally find the first-person present-tense narrative rather annoying. I'm not sure my 11 year old daughter will even have the patience to keep reading long enough to be drawn in, which is unfortunate because the ending is actually kind of nice. It also does a very good job at portraying the fear people felt at the Cuban Missile Crisis. Reading the book description I had the impression it might be something like Gary Schmidt's excellent The Wednesday Wars, but it never reaches that level (although it's probably unfair to saddle any book with such high expectations as that outstanding book delivers).

Countdown follows the main character, Franny, as she faces life in 1962 during a turbulent time in US history. Franny's life is filled with interesting characters. Uncle Otts is still living a war in his mind and keeps the family a bit on edge with his antics. Franny's sister is going off to college and seems to have completely disappeared from the family. Franny's dad is currently in the military and is always off on various missions, which keeps her mom a bit tense. Then, there's Franny's school friends, who provide her with lots of adventure, but also the feuding that comes with growing up with friends. While Franny is trying to discover how to make her way through her own life, she's also having to cope with the inherent fear that has developed in the world due to President Kennedy's announcement that Russia is sending nuclear missiles to Cuba. The threat of a bomb is always on Franny's mind, and her school doesn't help to relieve this fear with their constant reminders of duck and cover drills. How will Franny learn to heal the conflicts that she has with her friends? How will she and her family come together during this turbulent time? Will the United States ever be filled with peace instead of the constant thoughts and fears of war?

In Countdown, Deborah Wiles masterfully weaves a documentary novel that both takes us into the lives of one American family but also helps us to see the fearful history that took place during this time. As I read, I felt as if I had boarded a time machine and traveled back to the sixties. I felt the constant fear because as I read I was presented with music, news reports, presidential announcements, and advertisements that brought the thoughts of nuclear attack back to the front of my mind. Just as I was living Franny's life with her and enjoying her moments and adventures with her friends and family, an announcement or a duck and cover drill would take place. I was never able to escape the fear of attack, and this made the novel so much more real. At the same time, I was also reminded through these same photographs and music of how the rest of the United States was trying to move on with their day-to-day lives and how there were other major events taking place at the exact same time. This is a must-read novel. It brings back a time in history that has much relevance to the fears and issues we face today. What might you learn from this novel? What might you experience as you take this journey with Franny?

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

I have always enjoyed reading books about American History, yet very few history books make it into my "to-read" pile. I was excited when I won a copy of Countdown on goodreads as it allowed me to read a bit more about the history of the United States.

Before starting this book, I knew very little about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Throughout the story I found myself getting more familiar with the topic. The author conveyed the historical information in a way that made it feel like a conversation instead of a lecture. She did this by delivering the facts through the main character; a twelve year old. The details about this past event were seamlessly woven into the story between talks of the daily woes of a seventh grader. This style allowed the author to successfully convey the information she needed about the Missile Crisis and the main characters life in an interesting way.

The young age of the narrator did concern me at first. The intended audience for this book--ages nine to twelve--is much younger than the YA books I usually read. I wondered if I would be able to relate to a character whose daily concerns involved things such as who to play with in the playground. In the end, these types of issues took up little of the story. Instead much of the plot focused on larger issues. I found I could relate to issues such as dealing with family dynamics. The author's ability to put me in the character's shoes quickly eased any concerns I had about the age difference between the protagonist and myself.

I was interested to find out that this book is the first in a trilogy. I am very curious to see what topics the remaining two books cover. I am hoping that the author chooses to focus on two historical events for the subjects of the remaining books. Her ability to make history entertaining has me excited for these releases.

Review: This book is one I would love to see any middle school aged student reading. It is a great book that many will find entertaining. The authors ability to keep the story interesting while still informing made for an enjoyable story. I can't wait to see what topics Wiles tackles next!

Until reading Countdown, I never really considered the Cuban Missile Crisis, or how petrifying an experience that must have been for the Nation. I came of age during the first Gulf War, when danger was something seen on the television in green, grainy night-cam, and happening far, far away: Sad for other people, but not for me. "They can't get us here." That was the sentiment that kept any sense of panic at bay. But with Deborah Wiles' terrifying and heartfelt account of those tense days in 1962, I'm now quite certain that, had I been a child during those times, as was the fate of the book's main character Franny, I would have crumpled like a wet piece of paper. THIS is the way that history should be taught.

Franny is, well, a "square". With her plastic headbands, clunky Buster-Brown shoes, and notoriously whacked out uncle, friends don't come easily, and the ones she has are fairly toxic. But popularity is low on Franny's lists of concerns. Her older sister Jo Ellen is acting strangely, disappearing without reason and receiving mysterious letters from someone named Ebenezer. Her father is constantly away from home, flying planes for the military. Her mother is distant. Her little brother is overly perfect, showing her up at everything. Her Uncle Otts who lives with her family is a shattered man after his time in World War I, obsessed with the threat of Communism and the notion that the spies may be among us. It's quite a scene when he begins ripping up the front yard to build the family a bomb shelter. And oh yeah, the Russians are amassing a nuclear arsenal on Cuba, capable of wiping out any city in North America at the push of a button. There are bomb drills at recess, and the students are forced to endure nerve-jangling informational films on what to do in the event of an attack: "Duck and cover!" Indeed.

Wiles was herself a nine year old girl during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the authority she infuses into this story springs from the pages. In addition to the narrative, which in itself is so truthful that anyone will be able to identify with Franny's anguish, Wiles weaves in snippets from the era: pictures of the Kennedys, Bob Dylan, Fidel Castro, real cartoon pamphlets that were handed out at schools, illustrating how to use your collar to protect your neck from nuclear fallout (really?), excerpts from the President's televised addresses to his frightened people, school report-style biographies of the military Generals of the day, maps, birds-eye photos of the missiles sitting on the beaches of Cuba. This historical data, fascinating and graphic, comes as interruptions to the plot, much as the real crisis came as an interruption, a total stand-still to the lives of the people who lived it; A radio in the living room, blasting the news that annihilation could drop from the sky at any moment, blotting out dinner conversation.

A book written with the level authenticity and detail that can be found in Countdown brings so much more to the depiction of an era than a textbook could ever hope to. The eye-crossingly dull facts of history are given a pulse by the characters who endured them. What would a factual account of the Bay of Pigs mean to a child? Nothing. But Franny watching her mother cry in the kitchen; Franny gathered around the television with her family, watching a hollow-eyed Kennedy prepare the country for the worst, Franny sitting alone in her room, penning a letter to the Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev, explaining that she and her family are good people who just want to live; Franny just trying deal with all the typical trappings of youth with forces she can't control or understand laying on top of her like a brick house? The first-person account is a gift to history: a teleporting widow to by-gone times. If Deborah Wiles were to write a book like Countdown for every stage of history, we might actually learn something from the lessons of the past.

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Riveting and engrossing book about being an eleven-year-old American girl in 1962. There are so many interesting layers to this book! Deborah Wiles starts with fantastic characters that so represent the the times but she does such a good job that you empathize instead of seeing them as stereotypes. Franny Chapman is the typical middle child suffering through 5th grade. She feels invisible to her family and always thinks she is in trouble, an afterthought, and a failure. Wiles does a great job painting her family - dad a pilot stationed at Andrews Air Force base, her mom the dutiful military wife (complete with bridge-playing luncheons and gold-painted decks of cards), older sister who starts college but has a hope chest filled with tableclothes, napkins, etc. (yep a trouseau for some time in the future when she gets married even though she has no boyfriend), a great-uncle who is perhaps suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer's and obsesses about building a fallout shelter, and a younger brother who carries around Disney's "Our Friend the Atom" book and wants to be an astronaut.

The setting is perfect American suburbia - they all walk to the neighborhood school, friends are those that live in the subdivision, they ride bikes, love McDonald's (it is brand new) and watch The Wonderful World of Disney, listen to 45s on record players, and want penny loafers instead of Buster Browns. Add to this backdrop the Cuban Missile Crisis and how it impacted kids and you have a wonderful story.

Wiles does so much more though by interspersing historical notes and snipits into the story. The book opens with black and white pictures of a mushroom cloud, civil defense posters, the moon, and Koufax, as well as quotes by Kennedy and Khrushchev, James Meredith, Koufax, and the moon. The book is a wonderful history lesson about a incredible turbulent time in our social history. Wiles writes engaging prose and these historical notes seem more like hypertext links than excerpts from social studies texts, and will appeal to young readers who are use to blended information resources.

Wiles manages to capture the uncertainty of the times and paces it well with the uncertainty that Franny faces in her life as she tries to navigate the social strata of 5th grade. It was a very interesting and fascinating read. Can't wait to hear what kids think of this book.

My daughter, an avid reader and older than the prescribed 5th to 7th grade recommendation, loved this. I think it is a refreshing change from the plethora of fantasy fiction about some kid who is orphaned and must overcome the forces of evil... I like fantasy too, but I prefer variety when reading! I love the historical backdrop, not common for young adult fiction (dominated by vampire romance...enough already!). More please! She is ready for the sequel.

Loved this approach to a book. . .news clips, historical photos, historical advertisements interwoven with a riveting plot. I will be recommending this book to my teenaged students at school. I can't wait to read the next book in the 1960's trilogy.

It's 1962 in this documentary novel by Deborah Wiles. John F. Kennedy is the president. Martin Luther King Jr. is just starting to speak his message. Pete Seeger is writing folk songs. And Franny is a girl who loves her family and Nancy Drew books. In school Franny and her classmates are taught to "duck and cover" when air raid sirens go off. She's fighting with her best friend, has a crush on the boy next store and is afraid that Cuba and/or Russia will drop an atom bomb on America. Franny's story is told interspersed with news articles, lyrics to songs, maps and illustrations in quite an amazing book. For a different kind of historical fiction book check out COUNTDOWN. Middle graders and up will enjoy it.

Imagine that you're eleven years old and your best friend suddenly seems to hate you, your older sister is obviously keeping secrets, the boy you have a crush on returns to your neighborhood, and your beloved great-uncle who lives with you is delusional. Now set all of that against the turbulent era of the early 1960s when schoolchildren are taught to duck and cover and everyone is on edge because who knows when the atomic bomb will be dropped on the U.S. There you have the premise of Deborah Wiles's Countdown, a powerful young adult novel that deposits you squarely amid the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

Countdown tells its story through the eyes of Franny, whose father is a major at Andrews Air Force base, and whose life seems to turn upside down during the pivotal week when Russian missiles are found aimed at America from Cuba. Franny wants everything to be normal, but beyond her own family trials, the world seems to have lost its mind. Constantly composing a letter to Chairman Krushchev, Franny feels life spinning out of control on all levels, and she feels invisible and powerless to do anything about it.

This is a quick reading novel, and it's brilliantly written. Franny just leaps from the pages with her worries and growing recognition of just who she is. Interspersed throughout the book are actual photos, headlines, song lyrics, and speeches from the times; these add so much to the recreation of the world as it was in 1962. The author establishes the setting perfectly, and wrenches your heart with Franny's desperate longings for normalcy and acceptance. This is a strong tale that is going to stick with me for some time. Do yourself a favor and read this book. You won't regret it.