The Cuban Missile Crisis was a six-day public confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over the presence of Soviet strategic nuclear missiles in Cuba. It ended when the Soviets agreed to remove the weapons in return for a US agreement not to invade Cuba and a secret assurance that American missiles in Turkey would be withdrawn. The confrontation stemmed from the ideological rivalries of the Cold War.
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Marked by widespread political and social change, twentieth-century Russia endured violent military conflicts, both domestic and international in scope, and as many iterations of government. The world’s first communist society, founded by Vladimir Lenin under the Bolshevik Party in 1917, Russia extended its influence through eastern Europe to become a global power.
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Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet, Candlewick, 2011, 416 pp, ISBN: 076365227X
Recap:- Several generations of loveless (or at least romance-less) marriages- Star-crossed young lovers- The Cuban Missile Crisis- Our world on the brink of destruction- A look at the role both politics and religion play in the end of the world- Some pretty life-changing explosions
Review:Oh, what to say about Life: An Exploded Diagram...It has received all kinds of glowing reviews. It bested Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls in the first round of the BOB.Author Mal Peet excelled in revealing a very specific world through the use of the characters' dialect. One example:
"You put that ole coat on, if yer gorn out. There's a wind'd cut yer jacksy in half."As I read, I was struck repeatedly with the thought, "Wow. This man can write." There are tons of writers who can tell a good story, but Mal Peet has a particularly affecting way with words.
All things considered, I can appreciate
Life: An Exploded Diagram.
But did I really
enjoy reading
Life? That's a different story. My major issue is that I sincerely feel that this is an adult novel. The vast majority of the characters are adults. The narrator is an adult, reflecting back on a certain period in his teen years. The issues and themes that many of the adults dealt with felt completely out of place in a YA novel. When the story focused in on Clem and Frankie's teenage forbidden love, it felt a little more YA, but then the ending wandered back into adult territory again.
And does the YA/Adult distinction matter so much? Perhaps not. But. It just won a round in the Battle of the
Kids' Books. And this is not a book I would hand to most kids.
The overall mood of the story felt gloomy to me. Every scene I envisioned was brown, gray, and dreary. I found myself looking forward to the scenes with the different political leaders during the Cuban Missile Crisis because those were the only passages that hinted at any action. And because I thought Peet's sense of humor really came through as he described different conversations and reflections that were had by Kennedy, Castro, and Kruschhev.
And the end. What in the world happened there? Bizarre.
If you've read
Life: An Exploded Diagram, I would
love to talk to you about it. Please leave a comment and let me know!
Recommendation:I would recommend Life to mature readers who appreciate adult, literary fiction or historical fiction.
By: shelf-employed,
on 9/29/2010
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Wiles, Deborah. 2010.
Countdown. New York: Scholastic.
Countdown. The story is one of a girl named Franny - a nondescript, middle child with a beautiful older sister and a "perfect" younger brother. Her father is in the 89th Air Force Division; her mother is a dutiful military wife. Her neighbors are nosy, her "crazy" uncle is suffering flashbacks from the war. She is having a major fight with her best friend; she has a crush on her neighbor.
And as if that were not enough, it's October, 1962. The Soviet Union has placed missiles in Cuba and the world as she knows it may end at any minute. Duck and cover!
Interspersed between the pages of Franny's story are photos, advertisements, song lyrics, headlines and other depictions of realia from the "Camelot" years.
According to the author,
Countdown is based on her own life, which accounts for the honesty and authenticity of it's protagonist. The collected depictions add to the story and in some instances (the bomb shelter instruction pull-out that appeared in Life magazine, the "duck and cover" photos of young children at their desks) add a palpable sense of the fear felt by Americans during those tense October weeks. Young readers will relate to Franny and gain a greater understanding of the period, however many of the song lyrics and photos will be unfamiliar to them, and are presented scrapbook style, without caption, in the body of the novel. This format adds dramatic impact at the expense of context. Will children recognize the smiling Nikita Khrushchev or the silhouetted figures of JFK and his brother deep in thought? Probably not, but it's a minor complaint.
There's a lot of
Newbery Award buzz about this ground-breaking "documentary novel." It is the first in a planned trilogy about the 1960s. Well-worth reading!
The author and Scholastic offer great resources. Links are below. Be sure to check out the trailer!
An excerpt from Countdown.Scholastic's Countdown booktalk.Scholastic's Countdown Discussion Guide.
Franny Chapman has a loony, veteran uncle, a practically perfect little brother, an Air Force Major father, an older sister who may or may not be a Communist and a backstabbing best friend. The cute neighbor boy who just moved back to town complicates life still further. Not only has her life gone crazy, so has the world. Khrushchev and Kennedy splatter the news in 1962 when Russians move missiles to
Cuba. Franny and her friends practice air raid drills and “Duck and Cover” in school in case of nuclear attack. With missiles aimed at the country, fear pervades the nation.
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on 6/2/2010
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Countdown
by Deborah Wiles. Scholastic Press. 2010. Copy provided for review.
The Plot: Franny Chapman, eleven, is a fifth grader at Camp Springs Elementary School in October 1962. Her father is a pilot at nearby Andrews Air Force Base.
Franny's life is in upheaval. Her great uncle Otts, who lives with the family, is acting weird, almost as if he's back in World War I, and the whole neighborhood knows. Her best friend Margie is treating her like a competitor and enemy. Older sister Jo Ellen, a freshman in college, disappears with new friends and unshared secrets.
At school they are taught to "duck and cover" to protect themselves in case of a nuclear attack. It's scary; made scarier when Uncle Otts goes even crazier and tries to turn the front yard into a fallout shelter. Life continues to spin out of control with the news reports that Communist Russia is sending nuclear weapons to Cuba.
The Good: Before Chapter One even begins, before Franny informs us that "I am eleven years old, and I am invisible," Wiles immerses us in the world of the early 1960s. Photographs, quotations, advertisements, the price of gas; and most about politics, the Soviet Union, Kennedy, "duck and cover".
I was born in 1966; I never had "duck and cover" drills, though we saw the dusty faded Fallout Shelter signs on buildings. By the time I was in school, it was with the knowledge that if we were attacked, we'd all die. Squatting by a wall, pulling a newspaper over you, having canned foods in your basement was not going to save you. So, just like the young reader of Countdown, I don't know first hand about America in the early 60s. Wiles's use of primary documents woven throughout the book creates a "you are there" feel for the book, so when Franny hears the drill we, like Franny, have seen the illustration of how to "duck and cover" when you're outside.
This "documentary novel" shows the reader, throughout the book, life in the 60s, life Franny experiences. The careful reader will put together some of the clues, such as the mentions of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the documentary sections and then the abbreviation SNCC showing up in the story. The documents do more than show life as of October 1962: the biography of Harry S Truman relates his death in 1972, and President Kennedy's assassination in 1963 is included. While the documents may give a "1962" flavor and depth to the reader, these references acknowledge that the reader, unlike Franny and her friends and family, is in the present.
Early in the book, in a short biography of President Truman, the reader is told that Russia was an ally during World War II and an enemy after. Franny's and Margie's friendship reflects this in a personal way; one day they are friends, the next Margie is conspiring against her. When Margie needs Franny's help towards the end of the book, what should Franny do?
I loved this book; I'm pretty proud of the fact that I'm not turning this into a gushing "love love love" post (because that wouldn't tell you much about the book, would i
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The concept is interesting, but I have such a qualm with novels that claim to be YA and are actually VASTLY too mature for the audience. Unfortunately, this sounds like it fits the bill. I appreciate your honest take on it though! Brilliant review :)
I have it checked out right now, so I'll get back to you after I read it!
I didn't buy this for my YA department because I too felt it was much more an adult novel. I didn't see it having a wide range of teen appeal and frankly wanted to spend my money on other items for my collection. I know there are teens who would enjoy this book but I saw it sitting on the shelf more than anything. You definitely hit the nail on the head with this review.
Oh wow. You're right. Sounds very mature. Great honest review. I hadn't heard of this one before.
I bought this book for my summer reading so I'll put a sticky note inside it to remind me to come back here after I've read it.
I have read Exposure by Mal Peet, though, (loved it) and would agree that Exposure is a crossover book - one that appeals to teens and adults. Exposure also has a wide cast of characters from different age groups. Traditionally, we expect a children's/YA protagonist to be a child/young adult. But I'm not sure that HAS to be the case. My favorite Golden Book when I was little was The Happy Man and His Dump Truck. There weren't any kids in that.