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Forty-eight years ago today, on a Tuesday, I spoke in hushed tones at recess to my friends as we pondered what might happen next after hearing President John F. Kennedy give an address on Monday evening to the nation in which he challenged Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR to remove the missile sites in Cuba.
Deborah Wiles in her documentary novel, which is both a novel and a sort of scrapbook, has taken her childhood experience and recreated a time of great historical significance for the USA. I found myself thinking about and reliving my life as a 9 almost 10 year old. Franny lived in a place most in danger of attack. I tried to take solace in the fact that I lived in a place that surely was so remote the missiles would have no interest. Then an adult, I don't remember whom, informed me that we were indeed a target being just miles from a new nuclear research lab in the nearby Idaho desert.
"Countdown" is the first of a planned trilogy, so it looks like I will be able to relive the whole decade that was the 60's with Deborah Wiles. The book may be written for middle schoolers, but adults will be drawn in by the history, pictures, and music lyrics. For a more definitive and less personalized review, go HERE. That is where I first learned of "Countdown."
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