Margie's friendship begins to shift and she has a fight with Franny that lands them both in the principal's office. Franny is interested in Chris, but so is her best friend, Margie.

Meanwhile, Halloween is approaching and a boy named Chris has moved back to the neighborhood. She is terrified that Jo Ellen is involved in something secret, but that turns out not to be the case. Franny discovers that Jo Ellen is hiding letters and when she takes one, she finds acronyms and numbers that seem to make up a code. Jo Ellen is often absent and is being secretive at a time when people fear spies and any deviation can be a reason for official questioning. One major aspect of her life at this time is the status of her older sister, Jo Ellen, who is a college student. Franny and her brother, Drew, are fearful about the state of the world even while their lives go on. When the Cuban Missile Crisis reaches its peak, the school children are taught to “duck and cover” in the event of an attack and the entire population is on edge, spurred on by official warnings that an attack could be imminent and would be met with a retaliatory attack. For example, her mother worries what the other military wives will think about Uncle Otts' strange behavior. Her mother does not work but lives in the strict social code of the time and place. She and her family live just off the military base and her father is an officer. At first, the situation in Cuba is a background to her daily life, but she is soon among those caught up completely in her fear that the Cubans will attack.įranny's family lives the typical life of a military family of the time. She is a thoughtful, intelligent girl but is caught up in the daily aspects of her life, including her relationship with her younger brother, her older sister, her uncle, her best friend, and a boy who has just moved back to the neighborhood. Kindle AZW file.įranny Chapman is an 11-year-old student and the middle child of a military family during the weeks of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Countdown by Deborah Wiles