Count Down By: Deborah Wlies

I haven't finished the whole of "Count Down", so I'll just do a summary of the first half. There are two parts of the book that take turns throughout the book, the first is more of a historical part. It contains short biographies from people who used to live during the Cold War such as President JFK and organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The second is a historical fiction about a girl who lived during the Cold War (1960s). Her name is Franny and she's just like any other 11 year old during the 1960's. When I started reading this book I got so excited because the author really does show the reader how life was back then. She doesn't sugar coat things either, like the fact Franny's mother doesn't believe that African-Americans are equal. Franny describes how the Cold War has every American frightened and how people with disabilities, African-Americans, and women are discriminated against. Even though Franny is just an 11 years old and doesn't quit understand what is going on it doesn't mean the reader doesn't.

The conflict in the story is that the Cold War has everyone so frightened that people are becoming more discriminative and untrusting. Franny had lost a friend, Margie because she thinks that Franny and her family are wrong. In the book Margie says, "Stay away from the Portman family. They are nothing but Russian spies and crazed lunatics." In reality, Fanny's sister, Jo Ellen is really secretly training to be a Civil Rights Activist against her mothers will. Franny's uncle is being discriminated against too. Many people in the town think the Uncle Otts (Franny's uncle) is crazy but really he suffers from post traumatic stress from being part of World War II.