The newest book by Kevin Wilson, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC, is a beautifully written and compelling coming-of-age tale about two struggling, hardworking kids named Frankie and Zeke who, over the course of a summer, create art and grow into so much more.
Based loosely on
…more the author's experience, according to his dedication to his special friend in his author's note.
In 1996, before the internet, Frankie and Zeke, two young people from Coalfield, Tennessee, transformed a summertime art project (posters) into a widespread phenomenon. They use an old copy machine in inventive ways because there is nothing to do in this town.
Frankie is a 16-year-old teenager who spends the day on her own because her mother works and her three triplet brothers are away doing other things.
As his parents go through a divorce, Zeke, a new nerdy, artistic boy she meets from Memphis, temporarily moves in with his grandmother. They are both outsiders and misfits in some ways. They connect right away and develop special friendships.
It was fairly risk-free. The motto reads, "The law is skinny with hunger for us, and the edge is a shantytown full of gold seekers."
Even a few drops of their blood are added.
However, as they distributed the posters throughout the city, rumors started to circulate and conspiracies started to spiral out of control. The police also got involved. Some even claimed that those authors were Satanists.
Twenty years later, when the book picks up, Frankie is married, a well-known author, a wife, and a mother. But until Frankie gets a call from an art critic researching and writing an article for the New Yorker about the Coalfield Panic of 1996, its history remains hidden and obscured.
To inform Zeke, she must track him down. She discovers him working on comic book art at his grandmother's house.
An emotional tale about friendship, creativity, and memory that explores what it means to hold onto who we were even as we change. It talks about how art opens the door to a new life that never seemed conceivable.
Wilson has a talent for developing eccentric characters who are sensitive and compassionate and who, despite their oddities, seem real. You grow to care about Frankie and Zeke, and you serve as a reminder of the significance that an occasion or time period can have on our lives. (less)
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