Count Down By: Deborah Wiles Part 2

After 3 weeks of reading Count Down, I finally finished it. Since I've already did a summary of the first part of the book, I'll just do the second. It seems like every time the book switches to the historical part the author always mentions the Cuban Missile Crisis and how President JFK and the Russian president are tempting each other. Then in the historical fiction, which is Franny's story, it seems like the family is falling apart. Franny's mother is always upset and distant, while Franny's father is always at the military base ready to fly off to protect his country. Then her brother is all depressed because he's obsessed with "Our Friend The Atom", a book that tells him that atoms are supposed to be used for good, yet atomic bombs are made of atoms and are being used to hurt people. So things are pretty messed up but as the days go by they seem to help and rely on each other despite their differences.

I honestly love the way the author developed the main character, Franny. In the beginning all I could do was roll my eyes at the ignorance Franny seemed to always show. She acted as if she only cared about her image, even though she truly loved her family. In the beginning as Franny and her friend walk home from school and saw that Uncle Otts was scaring people as he acted like everyone on the street was a soldier. Franny hid behind a bush and said, "I just can't. I don't want them to make fun of me. I'm going to be the laughingstock of the neighborhood, if not the whole school, on Monday." Honestly, I get where she was coming from, but she chose to save herself even though her uncle needed her. I believe if Franny would have stood up for her uncle she wouldn't have been laughed at but looked up too. Then as the story goes on and Franny learns to be more considerate and mature I learned to love her character and the way she saw things. Franny and Margie (ex-friend) get into this big argument but instead of leaving Margie to run around in the woods, Franny goes to help her even though she has every right to be angry. In the text it says, " I can help. I don't want to. I will. I turn myself around and run into the woods."