1.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Klages, Ellen. The Green Glass Sea: a novel. New York:
Viking Press, 2006. ISBN 0670061344.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
In 1941, ten year old Dewey
Kerrigan is having a rough time. First,
she has to travel across the country by herself when her dad gets moved for a
job into a town without an official name, but then she doesn’t really get along
with anyone her age in this mysterious town.
On the upside, an aspiring engineer like Dewey has plenty of the United
State’s top scientists to talk to in Los Alamos. But she’ll find a connection in Suze Gordon,
a semi-misfit like herself, whose parents are also working in New Mexico on the
top-secret ‘gadget.’ With the shadows of
secrets, war, and the tragedy of death hanging over them, these two girls will
find that sisters go beyond blood and sometimes the super hero really is inside
the little kid.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
I’ve read a great number of books on World War II, some children’s
books, like Waiting for Anya
or Number the Stars, some not, like Hitler’s Scientists
and Night,
but most have been centered around
the people involved with making the decisions or at least on the ‘front lines’
as it were. Klages brings the story back
home -- to those affected by the war, but maybe not directly. Instead, we get history in snippets of
overheard conversation or through vague references to people and places that
the reader might know better in hindsight than the characters living through
it. I got excited when I realized that
Dewey was on a train with Richard Feynman and that ‘Oppie’ aka Robert
Oppenheimer was just a few doors down.
Looking back at the year made me realize that in the early 1940’s New
Mexico desert, this book might not have a happy ending. While the research is fit in vague references
and comments, the amount of information can get overwhelming at times but the
characters remain likeable and true to each other and the setting. Even the switch between the voices of Dewey
and Suze is handled with finesse as the reader can easily slip from one to the
other without the jarring effects of feeling like an outsider for either girl
as they explain their own story. The
theme of superheroes and service to a country versus what is at times
ambiguously moral is underlined by the currents of fitting in and being
yourself. Klages provides a great deal
of history, including in her sources other books on those who were involved at
Los Alamos and the history behind the location that was a state secret for so
long.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
SCOTT O’DELL AWARD FOR HISTORICAL
FICTION
JUDY LOPEZ MEMORIAL AWARD
NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARD FOR BEST
YOUNG ADULT BOOK
2009 ONE
BOOK, ONE NEBRASKA FOR KIDS
A HORN BOOK FANFARE SELECTION
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION
A SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB SELECTION
FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “Many
readers will know as little about the true nature of the project as the girls
do, so the gradual revelation of facts is especially effective, while those who
already know about Los Alamos's historical significance will experience the
story in a different, but equally powerful, way.”
From BOOKLIST reviewer John Green –
“The novel occasionally gets mired down in detail, but the characters are
exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great
tie-in for history classes.”
5. CONNECTIONS
Gather other books by Ellen Klages
such as:
• WHITE SANDS, RED MENACE. ISBN 0142415189.
• PORTABLE CHILDHOODS. Introduction by Neil Gaiman. ISBN 1892391457.
Gather other books about World War
II and the people who shaped the outcomes of war such as:
• Bascomb, Neal. THE NAZI HUNTERS: HOW A TEAM OF SPIES AND SURVIVORS CAPTURED THE WORLD’S MOST NOTORIOUS NAZI. ISBN 0545430992.
• Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. DOGS ON DUTY: SOLDIERS’ BEST FRIENDS ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND BEYOND. ISBN 0802736505.
• Bruchac, Joseph. CODE TALKER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE NAVAJO MARINES OF WORLD WAR TWO. ISBN 0142405965.
• Sheinkin, Steve. BOMB: THE RACE TO BUILD – AND STEAL – THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON. ISBN
1596434872.
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