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Anthem

By: Deborah Wiles
Narrated by: Blair Brown, Michael Crouch, Stephanie Willing
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Publisher's summary

The remarkable story of two cousins who must take a road trip across American in 1969 in order to let a teen know he's been drafted to fight in Vietnam.

Full of music and figures of the time, this is the masterful story of what it's like to be young and American in troubled times.

It's 1969.

Molly is a girl who's not sure she can feel anything anymore, because life sometimes hurts way too much. Her brother Barry ran away after having a fight with their father over the war in Vietnam. Now Barry's been drafted into that war - and Molly's mother tells her she has to travel across the country in an old schoolbus to find Barry and bring him home.

Norman is Molly's slightly older cousin, who drives the old schoolbus. He's a drummer who wants to find his own music out in the world - because then he might not be the "normal Norman" that he fears he's become. He's not sure about this trip across the country...but his own mother makes it clear he doesn't have a choice.

Molly and Norman get on the bus - and end up seeing a lot more of America that they'd ever imagined. From protests and parades to roaring races and rock n' roll, the cousins make their way to Barry in San Francisco, not really knowing what they'll find when they get there.

©2019 Text Copyright © 2019 by Deborah Wiles. Audio (P) 2019 Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. scholastic, scholastic audiobooks, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. (P)2019 Scholastic Inc
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Glad I listened

I happened upon Countdown in both book and CD form at a reading teacher conference about 10 years ago. The mixed genre format of this trilogy was new to me, and I love how Wiles combines interesting and meaningful YA narratives with historic documents, speeches, quotes, etc. The whole series has taught me a lot, and I strongly believe the audio versions of these books enhance the “reading” experience immensely.

Anthem is essentially the culmination of the series that I was expecting. It did take me 10 chapters or so to truly begin to enjoy the main characters. Parts of this story are certainly far-fetched, but they are also entertaining and insightful. While this book can stand on its own, I think it is much more satisfying and emotional if you have read Countdown and Revolution (my favorite) first. The way a few characters appear throughout the series is a nice thread to follow. (I was so happy that Ray is in this book - that might be my favorite chapter!) The comments read by the author at the end are also meaningful. I don’t know why it took me three years to realize this book had been published, I’ve been wanting to hear it a long time. The only thing missing is a link to the playlist - but I’ll be creating that on my own.

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