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Summary
Summary
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.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wiles heads north from her familiar Mississippi terrain (Each Little Bird That Sings) for this "documentary novel" set in Maryland during the Cuban missile crisis. Eleven-year-old Franny, a middle child, is in the thick of it-her father (like Wiles's was) is a pilot stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. Wiles palpably recreates the fear kids felt when air-raid sirens and duck-and-cover drills were routine, and when watching President Kennedy's televised speech announcing the presence of missiles in Cuba was an extra-credit assignment. Home life offers scant refuge. Franny's beloved older sister is keeping secrets and regularly disappearing; her mother's ordered household is upended by the increasingly erratic behavior of Uncle Otts (a WWI veteran); and Franny's relationship with her best friend Margie is on the brink as both vie for the same boy's attention. Interwoven with Franny's first-person, present-tense narration are period photographs, newspaper clippings, excerpts from informational pamphlets (how to build a bomb shelter), advertisements, song lyrics, and short biographical vignettes written in past tense about important figures of the cold war/civil rights era-Harry S. Truman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Pete Seeger. The back-and-forth is occasionally dizzying, but the striking design and heavy emphasis on primary source material may draw in graphic novel fans. Culminating with Franny's revelation that "It's not the calamity that's the hard part. It's figuring out how to love one another through it," this story is sure to strike a chord with those living through tough times today. Ages 9-12. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Eleven-year-old Air Force brat Franny Chapman stars in Wiles's documentary novel about shifting friendships, first crushes, and family loyalty, set during the volatile days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this audio version, Galvin voices each of the book's many characters convincingly: Franny, emotions roiling; her mother, all brusque efficiency; Uncle Otts, ever unpredictable; and Margie, who goes from loyal friend to betrayer and back. It's a shame for the audience to miss out on seeing the printed book's many expertly placed archival photographs. However, performances of the speeches, news headlines, propaganda, and slogans -- Duck and Cover! -- do enhance the story, and the actors are up to the task (a so-so JFK impersonation notwithstanding). Background sound effects, including typewriters clacking and newsreels ticking, nicely underscore the time period while effectively enhancing listeners' "this just in!" experience. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* More than a few books have been written about growing up in the early 1960s, but Wiles takes her story, the first in the Sixties Trilogy, to an impressive new level by adding snippets of songs and speeches and contemporaneous black-and-white photographs to the mix. Drawing on her own experiences during this turbulent time, Wiles' stand-in is 11-year-old Franny Chapman. Living near Andrews Air Force Base, close to Washington, D.C., Franny and her classmates are used to air-raid drills, where they practice how to duck and cover. Worries about a nuclear disaster become concrete when President Kennedy announces Russian missiles are in Cuba, and the tension ratchets up for 13 days in October 1962. But, at the same time, life goes on, and while rumors of war swirl, Franny must also deal with family issues, including a shell-shocked uncle who embarrasses her, an older sister with secrets, and a best friend who has eyes for someone else. Dealing with fear is one of the book's themes, and the dramatic ending takes this issue on in both macro and micro terms. Wiles skillfully keeps many balls in the air, giving readers a story that appeals across the decades as well as offering enticing paths into the history. Many readers will find this on their own, but adults who read bits and pieces aloud will hook kids. They'll eagerly await the next installments.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-It's 1962, the height of the Cold War, and Franny Chapman and her family live in Camp Springs, Maryland. It's near her father's work as a pilot at Andrews Air Force Base and unnervingly close to Washington, DC. It's a turbulent time when the threat of a nuclear war is all too real and the Civil Rights Movement is disturbing the status quo. Listeners are immersed in the era through the words of 11-year-old Franny in Deborah Wiles's novel (Scholastic, 2010), compellingly performed by Emma Galvin. Franny's life is filled with concerns, triumphs, disasters, family, and friends, and it is all made real in Galvin's nuanced and credible reading. Commercials, clips of speeches by President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., news broadcasts, song lyrics, and more are interspersed to further bring the era to life and augment the emotional turbulence. Franny shares what she learns in school through her research for reports (e.g., background on Pete Seeger and Fannie Lou Hamer), which takes her out of character. Younger students may need additional background to make sense of the period inserts, but Franny's experiences and emotions will resonate with listeners. This piece of historical fiction is the first title in a projected trilogy.-Maria Salvadore, formerly Washington DC Public Library (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
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. I squint into the sunshine and watch a brilliant gold leaf fall from a spindly old tree by the sidewalk, and then I open Makers of America to page forty-seven because it's social studies time. I love social studies, love everything about it, and most of all I love to read aloud.Mrs. Rodriguez, my teacher, has skipped me twice this week - twice! - when we read out loud during social studies, going down each row, desk after desk. I am determined not to let that happen again.Mrs. Rodriguez wears square shoes with thick soles, and glasses on a beaded string around her neck. After conferences last week, I heard Mom describe her to Daddy as thick-waisted. Her fingers are the strong, blunt kind that put me in mind of my grandmother, Miss Mattie, who runs a store in Mississippi and is always hauling around boxes of boots or barrels of pickles. Miss Mattie's fingernails are cut straight across, but Mrs. Rodriguez has short, pointed nails that look like little triangles. \I thought she liked me. When we practiced duck-and-cover under our desks the first week of school, my headband popped off my head and I didn't even try to retrieve it - I just kept my head down and let my hair fall all over my face. Mrs. Rodriguez complimented me right in front of everyone and told me I was a perfect turtle. Excerpted from Countdown by Deborah Wiles All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
