maryland map
countdown

Reviewer rating

Format reviewed: Audio
Ready by Emma Galvin
7 hours 20 minutes

Maryland

The Old Line State

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Place:

Time Period:

Focus:

Tone:

Camp Springs, Maryland
1962
Cuban missile crisis; civil rights movement; Cold war
Indignant, blunt, and dramatic (the news and sound bites)

The audiobook Countdown by Deborah Wiles is amazing! It includes actual radio and television news clips, snippets of popular songs, and excerpts from famous speeches. Realistic sound effects have been added to really bring the story to life. This was the second book I listened to for the Audiobook Tour.

Countdown, the first book in the Sixties Trilogy, takes your “ears” back in time to 1962. The story is chock full of references to pop culture and trivia. Franny Chapman, 11 years old, is struggling to find her place in the world. She doesn’t fit in with her family and her best friend has become distant.  She is going through many changes and so is the world around her.  Topmost on everyone’s mind is the Cuban Missile Crisis; a situation that has the whole country on edge. In this coming-of-age story, Franny finds her place in the world and the many ways she can make a difference in her own life and in the lives of others.

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