Countdown (the Sixties Trilogy, #1)

Set in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the novel follows eleven-year-old Franny Chapman as she contends with fear of nuclear war, family upheaval, and the painful shifts of growing up.

Franny lives in Camp Springs, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., with her family: her father, Major Philip Chapman, an Air Force pilot at Andrews Air Force Base; her mother, Nadine; her older sister, Jo Ellen, eighteen and in college; her younger brother, Drew, a space-obsessed third-grader; their shaggy dog, Jack; and Uncle Otts, a World War I veteran. Franny considers herself invisible: Her teacher, Mrs. Rodriguez, keeps skipping her during read-aloud, and at home, Drew's achievements draw praise while Franny is assigned chores.

On Friday, October 19, an air-raid siren screams during recess. Caught outside with no desks to duck under, children scatter in panic. Franny scrapes her knee and palms before the alarm is confirmed as a scheduled drill. On the walk home, Uncle Otts intercepts the neighborhood children in the street, wearing his civil defense helmet and war medals, barking orders and accusing them of being spies. Drew calmly salutes him and says "At ease, Sergeant," a phrase borrowed from their father, which snaps Uncle Otts out of his episode. Franny's best friend, Margie Gardener, who lives next door, calls Uncle Otts "psycho." Franny defends him but feels her friendship with Margie fraying.

At home, the household is in crisis. Uncle Otts disrupted Mom's bridge party by bursting in raving about spies and blueprints, sending all the guests fleeing. Mom fears the incident will hurt Daddy's promotion. Franny notices a letter fall from Jo Ellen's pocket, addressed from someone named "Ebenezer" on stiff, crinkly paper. Jo Ellen snatches it back and refuses to explain. Before leaving for a campus meeting, Jo Ellen locks the letter in her hope chest, and Franny glimpses a drawer packed with similar envelopes.

The next morning, Uncle Otts begins digging a bomb shelter in the front yard with supplies he has ordered. He digs alone with furious energy until he collapses. Lost in a flashback, he cries out about trenches full of the dead and screams for someone named "Nicky." With help from Margie's father, Mr. Gardener, Franny coaxes Uncle Otts back to the present by saluting him and asking about his blueprints. Mom arrives and rushes him to the hospital at Andrews Air Force Base.

That afternoon, Franny and Drew discover that Chris Cavas, a boy who moved away a year ago, has returned to the house across the street. The three bike to the gravel pit, a deep, abandoned quarry in the woods at the end of their street, where a rope swing hangs over the edge. Franny, determined to prove she is not afraid, grabs the swing, gets tangled, and crash-lands near the rim, bloodying her nose. In a burst of reckless inspiration, she invites Chris to a Halloween party she is not actually having.

Over the following days, Franny's world fractures further. She and Margie break into Jo Ellen's hope chest and steal a letter. Margie takes it home, reads it, and refuses to return it. When Franny confronts her at school, they fight in the bathroom. Both are sent to the principal's office, where Franny, overwhelmed with stress, throws up on the floor. Mom picks her up. They retrieve Uncle Otts from the hospital, and he squeezes Franny's hand at McDonald's in a quiet moment of reconnection. Left alone that afternoon, Franny reads the stolen letter. It contains no personal message, only a list of acronyms followed by phone numbers: SNCC, CORE, EBENEZER, FOR, and COFO. The letter is not a coded spy communiqué but a contact list.

That evening, Monday, October 22, the family gathers around the television. President Kennedy announces that the Soviet Union has secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, capable of striking Washington, D.C. He declares a naval quarantine of Cuba and warns that any missile launched from the island will be treated as a Soviet attack. Daddy is called to the base. Uncle Otts, strangely calm, tucks Franny in and tells her that when he was not much older than she, he was sure it was the end of the world, but he grew up to become an old man, and she will too.

The crisis dominates the rest of the week. At school, Mrs. Rodriguez teaches the class about Cuba's geography, culture, and her own Cuban husband's family, helping Franny see Cuba as a place of people rather than a source of fear. At home, Mom builds a makeshift shelter in the basement. Uncle Otts shows Franny a photograph of his brother Nicholas, who enlisted underage because he worshipped his older brother, and says simply that he killed him. When Franny reaches Jo Ellen by calling the Ebenezer phone number, Jo Ellen explains that Uncle Otts and Nicholas were gassed in the trenches in France, and Nicholas died in Uncle Otts's arms. Jo Ellen also reveals her own secret: She is training with a civil rights organization to do work in the South and asks Franny not to tell Mom.

On Saturday, Jo Ellen helps Franny dress for a Halloween party hosted by Gale Hoffman, a neighborhood girl who has been spending time with Margie, outfitting her with silk scarves from their grandmother Miss Mattie's hope chest. At the party, Franny relaxes for the first time, dancing and connecting with classmates. Then Margie arrives and accuses Franny publicly, claiming Jo Ellen writes coded letters and works for the Russians as a spy. Franny addresses the room: "My sister is not a spy. My uncle is a good person. And so am I." When Gale sides with Franny, Margie bolts into the dark.

Unable to leave Margie alone in the dark, Franny follows her into the woods near the gravel pit, where older boys are setting off firecrackers. Terrified, Margie slips off the quarry's edge and slides onto a crumbling ledge, clinging to a tree root. Franny tears the silk scarves into strips and knots them into a rope, but it is too short. Jack appears carrying a real rope left behind by the older boys. Franny scrambles to take it and accidentally falls across the rope swing's seat, which launches her out over the moonlit pit. As she swings past Margie, she screams for her to grab the trailing rope. Margie catches it. Franny crash-lands hard, breaking her collarbone and losing consciousness. Chris, who had gone for help, returns with Uncle Otts, Drew, and Mr. Gardener. Uncle Otts lights flares, rigs a pulley, and hauls Margie out.

Franny wakes in the hospital. On Sunday, October 28, the radio announces that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev has agreed to dismantle the missiles in Cuba. Her family gathers around her bed. Uncle Otts, wearing all his medals, unpins the largest and pins it to her pillow "for bravery in battle." Franny protests that the swing and rope were accidents. Uncle Otts replies that it was no accident she stayed with someone who needed her: "A hero can be afraid, but a hero never runs away."

On Halloween night, Franny sits on the driveway with Uncle Otts, handing out candy. Margie walks over carrying the scarf-rope and says she wishes she could do everything over. Franny replies, "Well, you can't." Margie turns to leave, and Franny calls after her: "Maybe . . . I'll see you tomorrow." As Uncle Otts ties a scarf around her sling, Franny reflects that the hard part is not the calamity itself but figuring out how to love one another through it. The novel closes with her declaration: "It's good to be alive."