Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles is a beautiful story of friendship between John Henry (a young black boy) and Joe (a young white boy) in the 1960s. The two boys spend their entire summer together, going on adventures and making unforgettable memories. As the boys spend time together, Joe begins to n...
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...
It failed to dazzle and wow me which is partly my fault since I'm too old to really enjoy a simple story. On a second thought, maybe I'm not. I actually like the plot in this story; it was a slow simmer but it all culminate in one tragedy. The pinnacle of this book was the cute occasional inserts of...
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 am at best lukewarm about this book. The problems I had with it range from the niggling (why does everyone have to have such a stupid-ass name?) to the troublesome (these people are all too good or too bad to be true). I hated the dog's name, because I couldn't get away from the feeling that Disma...
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.
Important: Our sites use cookies.
We use the information stored using cookies and similar technologies for advertising and statistics purposes.
Stored data allow us to tailor the websites to individual user's interests.
Cookies may be also used by third parties cooperating with BookLikes, like advertisers, research companies and providers of multimedia applications.
You can choose how cookies are handled by your device via your browser settings.
If you choose not to receive cookies at any time, BookLikes will not function properly and certain services will not be provided.
For more information, please go to our Privacy Policy.
Log in with Facebook 
