For a kid named Cribbsy, the month of November, 1963, was a private train wreck weeks before JFK undertook his fatal motorcade in Dallas.

Cribbsy is tangled in a half-dozen romantic crises. He's hounded by malevolent dwarfs. He's under threat of suspension by a vicious vice-principal. He's at war with his English teacher. Every time he sets foot in the halls, he faces death at the hands of a delusional gridiron gladiator.

Cribbsy's trials trace America's loss of innocence. Kennedy has faced down Khrushchev over Cuban missiles, but every kid grows up with the haunting certainty that his life—all life—will end beneath a mushroom cloud.

As the nation mourns JFK, Cribbsy's troubles mount. He becomes an unwitting felon. He receives an unexpected overture from the yummiest girl in school. He faces a showdown with his raging nemesis. He knows what happened in the Art Room. And he has a conversation—both crushing and illuminating—with the Playmate of the Month.