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Jul 18, 2011

Megan rated it:

Actually, I'm listening to it and I'm thinking that's the way to go with this book. It has so many cool sound-bites that make it seem so real!

This just might be my all-time-favorite audio book! It was wonderful! Frannie is a 5th grade girl living in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis in a suburb of D.C. While the book certainly is a kid-friendly history lesson on the early 1960s, it also has a story line dealing with friendships and relationships, both within families and with c More...

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

I held this book up to the noses of the children’s bookgroup I run. “Does anyone know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was?” I asked. My point blank question was met with pointedly blank stares. I tried a little word association on them. “Duck and cover? Bunkers? Castro? Bay of Pigs?” Nope. It’s funny, but when you think of what parts of American history sort of get bypassed in school, the Cuban Missile Crisis is definitely one of them. To be fair, children’s literature has kind of let t More...

0 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2010

Alison rated it:

To win a copy of this book go to Alison's Book Marks Contest Ends 6/16/2010

REVIEW:
A gripping Middle Grade novel which might also be educational - shh!

The first of Deborah Wiles's Sixties Trilogy, Countdown takes a fresh look at a coming-of-age story in the 1960s. Franny Chapman is a typical 12 year old girl, who reads Nancy Drew, has fights with her best friend, worries about how her hair looks, and has a crush on the boy down the street. We've all been there, and More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Mary marked it as to-read

School Library Journal (July 1, 2010)
Gr 5-8-Franny lives with her family in suburban Maryland just outside Andrews Air Force Base, circa summer of 1962. Kennedy and Khrushchev's duel on the world stage plays in the background while the fifth grader worries about her best friend's betrayal; adores her college-age sister, Jo Ellen; and fights Twith her saintly little brother, Drew. When not navigating the ups and downs of early adolescence, she writes letters to Khrushchev, prepares for air-r More...

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Sep 07, 2011

Carol rated it:

It’s 1962, and 5th-grader Franny Chapman lives in fear of an atomic attack by the Russians on her Washington, D.C.-area neighborhood.

Air-raid drills at school, her Air Force father on high alert, President Kennedy delivering somber speeches on TV, and her Uncle Otts building a bomb shelter in their yard–all these things add to her worries.

Then there’s the preteen angst of fighting with her best friend and crushing on the cute boy down the road.

This substantia More...

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Aug 25, 2011

Pamela rated it:

Sometimes a family member can really be embarrassing and Franny Chapman has an uncle that embarrasses her in Countdown (Scholastic 2010) by Deborah Wiles. The funny thing is the person who embarrasses you might be the one that helps you in a time of need. This is exactly what happened to Franny who is a twelve-year-old girl in 1962. She finds her life changing all around her. She has a father that is in the military and has to leave for extended periods of time. Her mother tries to keep it More...

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Apr 25, 2011

Katie rated it:

Recap:
The year is 1962 and Franny is having a difficult time deciding which she should be more worried about: her Uncle Otts' steady mental decline, her former-best-friend Margie who may be trying to steal Chris Cavas from her, or the ever present threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Life is hard when you're 11.

Review:
Told in equal parts through Franny's narrative; excerpts of songs, speeches, and commercials from the early 1960s; and dozens of striking full-page images, Count More...

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Apr 01, 2011

Marybeth rated it:

Troubles come in all different shapes and sizes - this is something Franny Chapman knows for sure. After all, two things of equal pressure are making conversation with the suddenly cute boy down the street, and facing the world as it falls down before her eyes.

It's 1962, and Franny is not the only one facing troubles. In fact, the whole world is. The story takes place as the USA lives in fear of Cuba dropping a nuke on them. And on top of everything else, her family is falling apart More...

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Mar 20, 2011

Julie rated it:

I was fortunate to download the audiobook, which has been nicely produced with the documentary clippings performed by actors doing JFK's and Khruschev's speeches, the "Duck and Cover" narrator, Jackie's White House tour, and much more. I hope it will be considered for any pertinent YA audio awards. Apparently they couldn't get or didn't want to pay the royalties to feature the songs mentioned in the book, so there's just the narrator saying the words to "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yel More...

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Mar 20, 2011

Mallory rated it:

I was surprised when I received this novel as part of a GoodReads giveaway for pre-release reviews from Scholastic, because I had not realized from the description that this would be a children's/YA novel. And, while it may not be as fantastical as the The Hunger Games trilogy, it is equally as stirring and important. Hopefully, it will be equally recognized.

Franny's entire life is changing. She is 11 years old and in the fifth grade, poised on the brink of childhood and young adult More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 07, 2011

akibird rated it:

Countdown by Deborah Wiles (2010)
Historical Fiction, 377 pages
Wrapped up in atomic war threats during the Cuban Missile Crisis, eleven year-old Franny is trying to get through the fifth grade and live a normal life. However, life is anything but normal when her uncle, dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder from WWII, is having flashbacks, her sister is disappearing for long periods of time and receiving secret letters in code, her annoying brother Drew is perfect and loved by al More...

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Mar 01, 2011

Kelly rated it:

Countdown Scholastic Press, 2010, 377 pp $17.99
Deborah Wiles ISBN978-0-545-10605-4

It's 1962 and Franny is living in a country on its toes. Kennedy has just announced that the Soviet Union has sent nuclear missiles to Cuba, which might be able to reach as far as Washington D.C.. 5th grader Franny's w More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2011

Josephine rated it:

A very ambitious "documentary novel" about a young girl dealing with the stress of growing apart from her best friend with the Cuban Missile Crisis looming in the background. The novel is interspersed with all kinds of interesting source material from the time period: photographs, newspaper headlines, bomb shelter brochures, advertising, and "editorialized profiles" of major political figures. Many times, I felt like the source material brought me out of the story, but in gen More...

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Jan 25, 2011

Kristi rated it:

Countdown is told by an eleven year old girl (Franny), wise beyond her years living through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fear of Nuclear War and the rise of Communism. Her Dad is an active member of the Air Force, her uncle a war veteran with obvious post-traumatic stress syndrome, she has an older sister who is keeping secrets, a terrified younger brother and a mother who is trying to hold the family together. The President's announcement of the nuclear threat pushes into all aspects of lives More...

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Dec 22, 2010

Becky rated it:

I really liked this book—a documentary novel—the first of a planned trilogy. Eleven-year-old Franny’s coming-of-age story is intertwined with the tense 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Franny and her family live near Andrews Air Force Base, where her father is an air force pilot. For Franny, her proximity to the base and her father’s position heighten the real fear of nuclear attack that all Americans, even children, felt at the time.(Duck and Cover!) As the Cuban Missile Crisis reaches a pe More...

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Dec 14, 2010

Nick rated it:

The basic concept is simple, but interesting: a novel told in such a way as to also act as a history book for a moment in time. The photos, quotations and other contextual notes make this about as close to a hypertext printed novel as I've ever seen.
The "real" story is fairly simple, a slice of life told from the viewpoint of a 5th grade girl, but the setting is the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the place is a town close enough to Washington, D.C. and Andrews Air Force Ba More...

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Nov 21, 2010

Becky rated it:

Countdown is a little outside the genres I usually read – it’s historical middle-grade, rather than contemporary/paranormal YA – but I loved it. Franny, who is eleven years old, is a wonderful narrator: the perfect blend of humor and seriousness, completely believable, and Deborah Wiles captured the voice of a child perfectly. The other characters are just as good: Franny’s parents, her brother and sister and crazy uncle, her friends, the boy across the street…this could very easily be a totally More...

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Nov 02, 2010

Jessie rated it:

This is a semi-autobiographical book about an eleven year-old girl, Franny Chapman, living outside of Washington D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Deborah Wiles also lived outside of Washington D.C. when she was eleven and during the Cuban Missile Crisis.) It is the first of three in the "Sixties Trilogy."

This book has a very unusual format. It's been called a "documentary novel" because interwoven throughout the story are little reports on the Presidents, po More...

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Oct 26, 2010

The Rusty Key rated it:

Reviewed by Rusty Key Writer: Jordan B. Nielsen

Recommended for: Boys and girls, aged ten and up, for themes of nuclear annihilation, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

One Word Summary: Sobering.

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 h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 24, 2010

Ginny rated it:

Where is that half-star rating when you need it? I read this book a few weeks ago and was all five-stars about it. And then I read one of the author’s earlier books, Each Little Bird That Sings, which touched my heart so deeply that all other books have slid down a notch in my estimation. But just a little notch, and I did love this book. It’s 4 ¾ stars so it’s only fair to round up.

The author notes that this story of the Cuban Missile Crisis began as a picture book. It grew into a More...

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Oct 16, 2010

Kathryn rated it:

Described by the publisher as a "documentary novel," Countdown tells about living in America during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The matter-of-fact narrative by 11-year-old Franny Chapman is interspersed with black-and-white photos, montages of quotations and song lyrics, excerpts from Civil Defense literature, films and brochures, all from 1962. Wiles weaves in other themes from the era; this is planned as the first of a trilogy (sigh!!), so no doubt those other themes will come to pro More...

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Oct 05, 2010

Sarah rated it:

LOVED it! This is such a cool book with an interesting concept. It's part 1 of what is set to be a trilogy, which makes me excited for the next installment. Too bad this just came out because it makes the wait that much longer for part 2.

Anyway, this is a Juvenile "documentary novel," a genre I've never heard of before - and am not sure that the author didn't just make up :) It's a fictional story that takes place in the 60's, specifically the days that made up the Cuban Mis More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 05, 2010

Vicki rated it:

I LOVED this book! Probably due to the fact that I was about the same age as Franny during this part of the sixties - and it was a step back in time for me, (though at age 9 I had never heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis) but mainly because the characters all rang so true to the times (how many kids books set in the sixties have parents smoking, and it's considered perfectly normal behavior?). In the author's own words, this book is described as a "documentary novel". Breaking up the te More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2010

Michelle rated it:

Touted as a “documentary novel” Countdown leverages imagery and quotes from the early 1960s to set the backdrop for the life of middle schooler Franny Chapman. The youngest daughter of a pilot, Franny lives off base and attends public school just outside the confines of Andrews Air Force Base during a very tumultuous time in political history. Surrounded on all sides by the effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis she attempts to navigate already difficult familial and social circumstances now exac More...

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Aug 08, 2010

Charlou rated it:

This book was an actual experience for me. While I have very few personal memories of that time, the phrase 'duck and cover' is about it, the pictures, quotes, lyrics and more gave me a sense of deja vous, a sense of being there. The juxtaposition of song lyrics and pictures was simply emotional. They also hinted at the future we know, but wasn't known then. I believe she is also setting the stage for the next two planned books with pictures relating to the civil rights movement.

It' More...

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Jul 30, 2010

Erin rated it:

I am really looking forward to the next two books in this trilogy about the sixties. This is one of those books that makes history interesting and relevant instead of deadly dull, and middle- and high-school teachers should take note of books like this. I love how Wiles really makes use of this sort of strange format, and the closest thing I can compare it to is Journey Into Mohawk Country, that also managed to take a potentially boring history lesson and turn it into an exciting novel.
More...

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Jul 29, 2010

Nicola rated it:

Reason for Reading: I enjoy historical fiction but the amount of photographs and media images in the book was what intrigued me the most.

If anybody had told me I was going to absolutely love a book that's main historical setting was the Cuban Missile Crisis I would have said "Sorry, I don't even read that kind of political book" then the next thing I'd say would be "BTW, what is the Cuban Missile Crisis?"

The book takes place over the last few weeks in More...

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Jul 08, 2010

Laura rated it:

When my 9 year-old daughter said, “Mom, I don’t think I’ll ever find a book as good as Countdown,” I pointed out to her that we’d read many books she loved and there would be others. She replied, “Yeah, but Countdown made me think.” To me this summarizes how powerful this book was in hooking my daughter and me as we were transported to a different era. Interspersed throughout the novel is footage of the events that took place during the Cuba crisis in 1962 as it parallels the momentous events th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 03, 2010

Jean rated it:

This is essentially 3 books in one. It is a scrapbook of 1962 with pictures of people and words of songs and speeches. These are stunningly presented and are integral to the story's setting and plot. It is a history lesson, with several chapters dedicated to explaining famous people and events. These give the reader the context of the fears of Franny, the main character, and her family. It also provides a much-needed background for today's young reader, who is likely not to be familiar with More...

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Jun 13, 2010

Eva rated it:

It's 1962 and Franny is 11 years old, a truly awkward age. It's the age when girls begin to try and figure out the teenager they are on the cusp of becoming, and yet they're still very much kids in so many ways. Franny is still attached to her childish anklets, headbands, and Nancy Drew mysteries, even as her best friend Margie becomes ever more dismissive and distant.

Things aren't so great at home, either. Franny's little brother Drew is practically perfect, while her older sister J More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)