Starred Review In this second book in the Sixties Trilogy, the action shifts to Greenwood, Mississippi, and focuses on Freedom Summer and its effect on the town. Twelve-year-old Sunny has family problems that, at first, suppress anything going on in the wider world. Her mother has deserted her, her father has remarried, and his new wife, Annabelle, comes with a son, Gillette, who is a little older than Sunny; a young daughter; Annabelle's mother; and a dog. But events begin to shake the citizenry, including Sunny and Gillette, who spot an African American boy leaving the segregated pool at night. The boy, Ray, is a harbinger of what's to come as "invaders" from the North (including Jo Ellen, the older sister in Countdown, 2010) open a Freedom School, register blacks to vote, and try to integrate public venues. This push begets pull, and soon Greenwood is awash in protests, arrests, and bloody violence. Several voices narrate, but the story belongs to Ray and, mostly, Sunny, whose confusion, dismay, fear, and bravery will resonate strongly with readers. Occasionally the family issues threaten to overwhelm the engrossing scenes of a society-altering summer. For the most part, though, Wiles does an excellent job of entwining the two plot strands and seamlessly integrating her exhaustive research, which is detailed at the book's conclusion. She also grew up in the South and brings an insider's authenticity. As in Countdown, the outstanding period artwork, photographs, snippets of sayings, and songs interspersed throughout bring a troubled time close.

Freedom Summer in 1964 Mississippi brings both peaceful protest and violence into the lives of two young people. Twelve-year-old Sunny, who's white, cannot accept her new stepmother and stepsiblings. Raymond, "a colored boy," is impatient for integration to open the town's pool, movie theater and baseball field. When trained volunteers for the Council of Federated Organizations—an amalgam of civil rights groups—flood the town to register black voters and establish schools, their work is met with suspicion and bigotry by whites and fear and welcome by blacks. In this companion to Countdown (2010) (with returning character Jo Ellen as one of the volunteers), Wiles once again blends a coming-of-age story with pulsating documentary history. Excerpts from contemporary newspapers, leaflets and brochures brutally expose Ku Klux Klan hatred and detail Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee instructions on how to react to arrest while on a picket line. Song lyrics from the Beatles, Motown and spirituals provide a cultural context. Copious photographs and subnarratives encapsulate a very wide range of contemporary people and events. But it is Sunny and, more briefly, Raymond who anchor the story as their separate and unequal lives cross paths again and again and culminate in a horrific drive-by shooting. A stepmother to embrace and equal rights are the prizes—even as the conflict in Vietnam escalates. Fifty years later, 1960s words and images still sound and resound in this triumphant middle volume of the author's Sixties Trilogy. (author's note, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 11-15)

Gr 9 Up-Andi Alpers's younger brother died two years ago and his death has torn her family apart. She's on antidepressants and is about to flunk out of her prep school. Her mother spends all day painting portraits of her lost son and her father has all but disappeared, focusing on his Nobel Prize-winning genetics work. He reappears suddenly at the beginning of winter break to institutionalize his wife and whisk Andi off to Paris with him. There he will be conducting genetic tests on a heart rumored to belong to the last dauphin of France. He hopes that Andi will be able to put in some serious work on her senior thesis regarding mysterious 18 th -century guitarist Amad&3; Malherbeau. In Paris, Andi finds a lost diary of Alexandrine Paradis, companion to the dauphin, and meets Virgil, a hot Tunisian-French world-beat hip-hop artist. Donnelly's story of Andi's present life with her intriguing research and growing connection to Virgil overshadowed by depression is layered with Alexandrine's quest, first to advance herself and later to somehow save the prince from the terrors of the French Revolution. While teens may search in vain for the music of the apparently fictional Malherbeau, many will have their interest piqued by the connections Donnelly makes between classical musicians and modern artists from Led Zeppelin to Radiohead. Revolution is a sumptuous feast of a novel, rich in mood, character, and emotion. With multiple hooks, it should appeal to a wide range of readers.— Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Wracked with grief over her younger brother's death, Brooklyn teen guitarist Andi accompanies her father, a world-renowned geneticist, to Paris. There she stumbles on the diary of an eighteenth-century girl caught up in the French Revolution. The parallel narratives intersect in an over-the-top time-travel sequence, which, though not totally convincing, adds to the novel's rich layers of political and cultural history.

Freedom Summer in 1964 Mississippi brings both peaceful protest and violence into the lives of two young people. Twelve-year-old Sunny, who's white, cannot accept her new stepmother and stepsiblings. Raymond, "a colored boy," is impatient for integration to open the town's pool, movie theater and baseball field. When trained volunteers for the Council of Federated Organizations—an amalgam of civil rights groups—flood the town to register black voters and establish schools, their work is met with suspicion and bigotry by whites and fear and welcome by blacks. In this companion to Countdown (2010) (with returning character Jo Ellen as one of the volunteers), Wiles once again blends a coming-of-age story with pulsating documentary history. Excerpts from contemporary newspapers, leaflets and brochures brutally expose Ku Klux Klan hatred and detail Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee instructions on how to react to arrest while on a picket line. Song lyrics from the Beatles, Motown and spirituals provide a cultural context. Copious photographs and subnarratives encapsulate a very wide range of contemporary people and events. But it is Sunny and, more briefly, Raymond who anchor the story as their separate and unequal lives cross paths again and again and culminate in a horrific drive-by shooting. A stepmother to embrace and equal rights are the prizes—even as the conflict in Vietnam escalates. Fifty years later, 1960s words and images still sound and resound in this triumphant middle volume of the author's Sixties Trilogy. (author's note, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 11-15)

This second installment of Wiles's Sixties Trilogy begins during the Freedom Summer of 1964, when hundreds of college students and community organizers arrived to help Mississippi's disenfranchised black citizens overcome voting hurdles erected by local officials. Sunny Fairchild, 12, has seen newspaper stories about these "invaders" and feels an affinity: her household has been taken over by her father's new wife, her children, and her elderly mother. Still, Sunny plans a summer floating in the (whites only) municipal pool, listening to the Beatles, and finding adventures. A chance encounter with Raymond, a talented young black athlete, sets Sunny on a dangerous course, one that exposes the poisonous racism that has her small town on the verge of exploding. As in Countdown (2010), Wiles intersperses Sunny and Raymond's story with historic photos, excerpts from speeches and news stories, and song lyrics that add power and heft to the story. Though the novel is long, it's also accessible and moving, and it will open many eyes to the brutal, not-so-distant past out of which a new standard of fairness and equality arose. Ages 8-12. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (May)

It is the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, and Sunny and her step-brother, Gillette, have decided to celebrate by sneaking out of the house and going for a moonlit swim. What the pair did not expect was they would not be the only ones with this bright idea: there was also another boy in the pool that night. Raymond is not allowed to do many of the things that Sunny and Gillette are allowed toall because of the color of his skin. The chance meeting is the start of many events in their lives during this summer, and once this happens their fates cannot help but be wound together. In the heart of the South during 1964, there are two sides when it comes to racial equality: those who want it, and those who do not. Sunny, Gillette, and Raymond are right in the middle of this battle. Both Sunny and Gillette are adjusting to their new family lives, while Sunny also tests her limits with her father. Raymond's whole world is changing with family and friends calling for equality, and his own family working to figure out where they fit in this new future. It makes for an intense period in all their lives.Wiles has (once again) done a fantastic job of retelling history in an interesting and engaging way. She intersperses song lyrics, mini-biographies, and photographs to create a novel that brings this terrible period in United States history to life. The story is told mostly from Sunny, Gillette, and Raymond's points of view, placing readers back in time during a scorching summer in Mississippi. A solid work of historical fiction that may not be wildly popular, it is an important read.Loryn Aman.