Franny is an 11 year old girl in the fifth grade in Maryland in October 1962. She is being taught to take shelter during air raid drills, and adults all around her are talking of the Cold War and a possible conflict with the Soviet Union. Her best friend, Margie, has been spending more time with a new girl, Gale, and her big sister just started college and has mysterious meetings and grown up activities, so Franny feels left out. The story of Franny's day-to-day life is interspersed with pictures and information detailing the early 1960s, the beginning of the Cold War, Harry Truman and more. There is information about the Civil Rights movement, and the Cuban Missle Crisis. Franny's father is an Air Force officer, so when President Kennedy announces a that nuclear missiles are aimed at the United States from Cuba and that he is instituting a blockade, her father is called to action. Her uncle, a World War I veteran fearing the worse, tries to build a bomb shelter in the yard and ends up in the hospital. Things seems to be going from bad to worse, then a fight starts at a Halloween Party between Franny and Margie. Franny chases after Margie when she runs away, and has to face her fears of the bomb and about her life. Wonderful coming of age story. According to the Author's afterward, the book is the first in a trilogy about growing up in the sixties. She describes it as a Documentary Novel. I was absorbed and fascinated as I have memories of the time, so I look forward to getting input from today's students who aren't familiar with the period. Countdown by Deborah Wiles.
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