This multi-media YA book is full of historical pictures and propaganda and brief biographies or descriptions of historical events--all set amid the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Cold War, which is the setting for this novel. Franny, our protagonist, is in the early, and utterly confusing stages of early adolescence. To compound this trying time, her best friend betrays her, publicly, her sister moves out of the house to stay with her college friends, and her crazy uncle has a complete and total melt down in the front yard. Oh, and did I mention that her teacher keeps skipping over her during reading aloud time, and she skins her knee and breaks her favorite head band during a nuclear bomb drill at school the first day we meet her? This is a delightful story that is full of historically accurate details, allowing readers to see what it was like to be young during the days of "imminent" nuclear holocaust. Wiles use of primary sources makes this much more than just a coming-of-age story of a young girl, but a coming-of-age story for an entire generation, and nation.
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