Countdown, by Deborah Wiles

Adolescence is full of tragedies, nuances and excitement. Hormones may be to blame for the more dramatic instances, but embarking on the teenage years in the midst of a time of real fear can add an entirely different element. In Countdown, Wiles tells of Franny Chapman, a 12 year old girl growing up in Washington D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Franny has a loving father who is gone a good deal since he is a pilot in the Air force, a mother who is all business, a younger brother who is obsessed with being an astronaut (and perfect), an older sister who is in college and has her own ideas about how the future should be (that she keeps hidden through letters in code), and a great uncle that is wrought with flashbacks and totally consumed by the missile threat.

Franny is simply stuck in the middle. She isn't grown, but she isn't a kid. She is consumed with fear of the unknown as the duck and cover drills at school increase. Her nerves are given another hit when Chris, the boy next door moves back, and is something to look at, but it turns out that her former best friend, current enemy, Margie, has her sights set on him as well.

Franny must walk the fine line between breaking the rules to find out what her sister is up to and make it to the boys and girls Halloween dance party, while finishing her chores, making sure her Uncle doesn't faint again from trying to dig a bomb shelter and let her little brother know that he has nothing to be afraid of with the bomb threats, even though she is scared enough herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed the mixture of the story of a young girl during this historic time with actual quotes, news-clippings, background information, TV screen shots, etc. depicting what was actually seen at the time. This is the sort of book that truly makes history come alive. 

When You are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris

Sedaris is a wizard at stirring up the haunts of his past in a witty nihilistic manner that leaves the reader rolling and wondering how the next short story could possibly compete with the one just completed. I read this story on a trip recently and ended up reading a number of the stories out loud to pass the time. It seemed that even more of the humor came forth when the inflection one's tone was heard from reading out loud, but there were a few parts that I could barely get through for laughing so hard.

A few of my favorite stories/characters: a middle aged landlord that shares Sedaris love of all things old, a cuss-happy neighbor in a NY apartment that Sedaris has a soft spot for, his childhood house and neighborhood, and his account of his love of cigarettes, what led him to quit smoking and how he went about it.

This anthology is undoubtedly for the adult reader due to language and mature content, but this should not dissuade the prude. The crude does now outshine the hilarity of what Sedaris calls life. 

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia

Delphine is one grown up eleven year old. Between helping out her grandmother, Big Ma, and father, Pa, around the house and looking after her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, she has little time to pause to think about just how grown up she is. So, her mother, Cecile, who left New York for California not long after Fern was born, hardly ever crosses her mind. That is, until Pa decides that the girls need to pay their mother  a visit. 

Each girl has a different idea of the mother they will find, but Delphine, having the most memory of Cecile: writing poetry on the walls, ignoring her, mumbling to herself; has the lowest expectations. All Delphine cares about is getting her sisters back in one piece without making an embarrassment of themselves. 

California seems to be the land of opportunity with Disney Land, sunny weather and movie stars, but Cecile hardly gives the girls a glance upon their arrival and retreats to her printing press located in the kitchen they aren't allowed in. The girls spend the first two weeks going to the Black Panther's hub for breakfast and "school," which consists of filling the children's minds with black power and rising up against the man. 

Delphine isn't so sure about these ideas, but knows they have to find food somewhere, so she makes the most of it. Determined to make the most of the situation, she takes the girls to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Chinatown three weeks in. After a day of fortune cookies and fun the girls make their way back to the house to find Cecile and two black panthers with their hands cuffed behind their backs and being hauled away by the police. 

After a night alone the girls are looked after by people from the club. After her release, Cecile finally gives Delphine some idea of why she left and makes it much easier for her to leave California and return to New York. 

This sobering children's novel reminds us that racism, poverty, ignorance were and still are an issue that not only affects adults, but children.