Countdown
The Critics Love Countdown
“[Countdown] has a striking scrapbook feel, with ingeniously selected and placed period photographs, cartoons, essays, song lyrics, quotations, advertisements and “duck and cover” instructions interspersed through the narrative. References to duct tape (then newly invented), McDonald’s and other pop culture lend authenticity to the phenomenal story of the beginnings of radical change in America.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“This story is sure to strike a chord with those living through tough times today.” — Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Wiles scores with both context and character.” — Chicago Tribune
“The larger story . . . told here in an expert coupling of text and design, is how life endures, even triumphs, no matter how perilous the times.” — The Horn Book (starred review)
“Many readers will find this on their own, but adults who read bits and pieces aloud will hook kids, who’ll eagerly await the next installments.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Whatever it is, I loved it.” — Monica Edinger, Educating Alice
_______________________________
A time that changed the world.
A time that changed Franny’s life.
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.
Countdown features a captivating story interspersed with footage from 1962. 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.
Look for JFK and Khrushchev to leap off the page, along with Sandy Koufax, Pete Seeger, Fannie Lou Hamer, Cassius Marcellus Clay, James Bond, and more. Photographs, song lyrics, advertisements, news clippings, and television snippets populate the pages of this story about the sixteen days when the world came as close as it has ever come to nuclear annihilation.