Students study the McCarthy era in American history and when they read Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The Loud Silence of Francine Green brings the controversies of that era to life.
The story takes place during Francine's 8th grade year, 1949-50, in a Catholic school for girls. Francine dreams of meeting movie stars. Sophie's father loses his job as a script-writer, and Sophie's neighbor is an actor blacklisted as a communist sympathizer. Francine accepts her father's advice to avoid controversy. Sophie questions everything, accepts no standard answers, and is punished regularly for stirring controversy.
Yet, when Sophie moves to Francine's school, the two girls become best friends. During their year together, Francine finds herself leaving the world of childhood innocence where Mom and Dad can make all bad things go away and entering a world where sometimes life isn't fair and the only right thing to do is to stand up for what she believes in -- no matter who disagrees with her.
Karen Cushman does an excellent job in this slender novel of bringing the time period to life. I can't help but see the similarities between post 9/11 America and Sophie's 1950 America. Cushman also does an excellent job of creating characters in Francine and Sophie that I wanted to spend time with and watch grow. dsm
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