Review of The Green Glass Sea

Bibliography

Klages, Ellen. The Green Glass Sea. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2007.  ISBN: 9780545036139

Plot Summary

In 1943, eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan lives with her scientist father in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as he works on a top secret government program, and befriends an aspiring artist who is a misfit just like her

Critical Analysis

Dewey Kerrigan’s mother is dead, her grandmother who she has been living with is no longer healthy enough to take care of her, and her father, a mathematician, is to busy working on a top secret project for the government and can’t spare the time to collect Dewey from the neighbor who is temporarily taking care of her.  it’s 1943 and Dewey at 10 years old is put on a train to travel across the country to New Mexico by herself.  During the trip we learn that Dewey is mechanically oriented and is designing a radio.  Because of this she is disliked by the other girls in Los Alamos.  She eventually becomes friends with Suze when she is sent to live with the Gordon’s when her father has to go to Washington.

This story of friendship, loss and belonging is set against the backdrop of the making of the atomic bomb.  Klages adds authenticity to the stories setting with carefully chosen dialog such as calling the refrigerator and ice box and food choices like Ovaltine warmed on the stove.  Authentic, historically significant characters, McKibbin, Feynman and Oppenheimer, also make appearances throughout the novel.  The book would be a good companion story to those studying WWll and the atomic bomb.

  

Awards and Excerpts

Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2007 Winner United States  

Quill Award - 2007 Nominee

Locus Award - 2007 Nominee

Nene Award - 2007 Nominee

Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award  - 2007 Nominee

Maine Student Book Award - 2007 Nominee



School Library Journal review excerpt:  “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”

Booklist review excerpt:  “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.”


Connections

Other Books by Ellen Klages:

White Sands, Red Menace, 2008.  Sequel to The Green Glass Sea

Portable Childhoods, 2007


Additional reading about the Manhattan project and Los Alamos, NM:

American Prometheus, 2005 by Kai Bird

The Manhattan Project : the birth of the atomic bomb in the words of its creators, eyewitnesses, and historians, 2009 by Cynthia C Kelly.

The Ultimate Weapon : the race to develop the atomic bomb, 2007 by Ed T. Sullivan.