"Countdown" by Deborah Wiles

This is a historical fiction book set in October 1962. How do I know this? Because that's when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, and the book revolves around said crisis. 

Learning the history (via the book's events and also because there were historical-tidbit interludes between chapters) was fun, but the actual plot was kind of lacking. Which is the problem with slice-of-life-esque books; they don't usually have much.

Now, not every book needs that to be good. With 65% certainty, this book was written primarily to teach kids about the 1960s, in which case: good job! If you moved it to now and replaced the Cuban Missile Crisis with some similarly stressful incident, though, the book would just be kind of lame.

What I'm trying to say is, the history and not the plot is the backbone of this book. I do like learning the history of the last century, though, and it's easier to get people to read a novel than a "History of the Cuban Missile Crisis" book (and to read one, for that matter).

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A very soft E10+. Nothing untoward, really, but realistically portraying the fear of a nuclear attack (as the book does) might be too much for younger kids. That said, it would make a pretty boring videogame.

 

This can have 3 stars, for being just OK.

 

(Endnote: Among other things, the book mentioned several Oldies that I know and like, as well as the TV show Combat!, which is my mom's favorite TV show in the history of TV shows. That was fun.)