by Deborah Wiles
I really enjoyed learning more about this time period, and the realistic impact it had on children directly affected by actions taken on the international stage. My son zoned out a bit during the history lesson/context building portions, so I think it would take the right kid to fully be invested i...
Countdown takes place in 1962 and is the story of 11-year-old Franny Chapman. Franny is a middle child living near Andrews Air Force base, and she often feels overlooked. She loves to read aloud, but her teacher never seems to pick her to read for the class. She’s fighting with her friend Margie, he...
6/29/11 ** Book-a-day Challenge Day 32, Book 38 ** Deborah Wiles has delivered a fascinating book that will be difficult to categorize. The characters are haunting me; I want to read more about the sister's summer trip to Mississippi, but the next book in this planned set of three companion volumes ...
When I was in school, my Social Studies classes usually ended right around the end of the Civil War, with some information about World War I and II if we had time at the end of the year, and the 1950s onward covered only briefly. I didn't grow up knowing very much about the Cuban Missile Crisis or e...
It's embarrassing how little I know about the 1960s. It seems like we always ran out of time in the school year and we never got to it. Ask me about the colonies though!I loved the details of 1962 in Countdown, and especially the fear surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis and how a girl would respond...
I thoroughly enjoyed Franny, the spunky girl in this documentary novel of 1962. Quite an ambitious project to set a stage of such real political drama, amidst a normal family grappling with an uncertain world. Hat's off to author Deborah Wiles. Can't wait for the next installment of the trilogy.
A "documentary novel." Excellent historical fiction.
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