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Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
Coalfield, Tennessee in 1996 is as remote (and boring) as any rural American town, so 16-year-old Frankie is intrigued when she meets Zeke, a strange boy from Memphis, at the public pool. Over the course of that summer, Frankie and Zeke pursue their art together, hers the written word, his visual arts. Working together, they make a poster: "The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us." They then make hundreds of copies of it on a photocopier stolen by Frankie’s triplet brothers and put them up around town. Copycats begin doing the same, and before long, local and national newspapers are reporting on the posters and their potential meaning, fashion companies are reproducing the slogan on T-shirts, and tourists start arriving in town to see the posters in person. Frankie and Zeke do not tell anyone that the poster is their creation, but 22 years later, a journalist discovers Frankie's involvement. Confronted with the possibility of her secret coming out, Frankie decides to come clean with her family and to try to reconnect with Zeke. Wilson's novel pays particular attention to the transformative power of art while capturing Frankie and Zeke's adolescent confusion. A touching time capsule about being a teenager in the ’90s, Now is Not the Time to Panic was one of named one of the best books of 2022 by Barnes & Noble, Time Magazine, USA Today, Kirkus Reviews and Entertainment Weekly.
This discussion is part of our One Book One Wallingford 2023 celebration! Join us as we come together as a community to read the book Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson. Get more information, sign up for programs, and grab your seat for the author event here: wallingfordlibrary.org/one-book-one-wallingford