1.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Klages,
Ellen. The Green Glass Sea. New York, NY: Puffin Books, 2008. ISBN:
0142411493
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Set in Los
Alamos, New Mexico during WWII, The Green
Glass Sea explores the hidden world of scientists and their families who
worked on the development of the atomic bomb. Dewey Kerrigan, an eleven-year-old,
and daughter of one of the scientists, is the main character of the story.
Through her eyes the reader learns what it is like to live in a world
surrounded by secrets, where no one talks about what they are doing at work,
where families can’t tell extended family members or friends where they live,
where students can’t get into universities because they have no official
address, and where the normal rhythms of life – and death – still continue,
even though they are surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The
Green Glass Sea is definitely a coming-of-age story. It is a story
of heartbreak and love, a story about being yourself and finding yourself. It
is a story of friendships and friendlessness. It is a story of life. Although
the setting of the story is a little dramatic – the hidden army base where the
atomic bomb was developed – there are also many everyday, normal occurrences
to temper the deathly serious location. Ellen Klages deals with all of these
story elements well. The protagonist, Dewey, although a typical, geeky daughter
of a scientist, is also believable and likeable. The reader finds him or
herself hoping for Dewey’s happiness amidst all of the turmoil she experiences.
Klages’
use of rising action is especially intriguing. Over and over again, Dewey
encounters heart-wrenching events in her life. The story opens with the stroke
of her grandmother, with whom Dewey lived. She is waiting for her father to
pick her up, but he never comes, sending a courier in his place. Dewey had to
traverse much of the continent on a train by herself. The reader learns early
on that Dewey’s mother abandoned her early in her life. Later, her father dies.
And through it all Dewey deals with the complications of living a secret life
on a secret base. It seems almost impossible that all of these issues can be
resolved, and perhaps they aren’t fully, but Dewey finds, finally, how she
belongs.
4.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Starred
Review, THE HORNBOOK MAGAZINE: "Dewey, ten, embarks alone on a mysterious
train trip from her grandmother''s home in St. Louis to New Mexico, where she
will rejoin her often-absent mathematician father. It''s 1943, and Dewey''s dad
is working at Los Alamos -- "the Hill" -- with hundreds of other
scientists and their families. Klages evokes both the big-sky landscape of the
Southwest and a community where "everything is secret" with inviting
ease and the right details, focusing particularly on the society of the
children who live there. Dewey seems comfortable with her own oddness (she''s
small for her age, slightly lame, and loves inventing mechanical gizmos) and serves
as something of an example to another girl, Suze, who has been trying
desperately to fit in. Their burgeoning friendship sees them through bouts of
taunting, their parents'' ceaseless attention to "the gadget,"
personal tragedy, and of course the test detonation early on July 16, 1945,
which the two girls watch from a mesa two hundred miles away: "Dewey could
see the colors and patterns of blankets and shirts that had been indistinct
grays a second before, as if it were instantly morning, as if the sun had risen
in the south, just this once." Cameo appearances are made by such famous
names as Richard Feynman (he helps Dewey build a radio) and Robert Oppenheimer,
but the story, an intense but accessible page-turner, firmly belongs to the
girls and their families; history and story are drawn together with
confidence."
Starred
Review, PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: “Klages
makes an impressive debut with an ambitious, meticulously researched novel set
during WWII. Writing from the points of view of two displaced children, she
successfully recreates life at Los Alamos Camp, where scientists and
mathematicians converge with their families to construct and test the first
nuclear bomb.”
5. CONNECTIONS
*
This book is a wonderful introduction to the atomic bomb. It is subtle in many
ways, but introduces a perspective of the war that is often overlooked. The Green Glass Sea can be one of many
books used to explore the atomic bomb and the role it played in people’s lives.
*Other
young adult novels that discuss people’s lives in relation to the atomic bomb
include the following:
Lawton, Clive A., HIROSHIMA: THE STORY OF THE FIRST ATOM BOMB,
ISBN: 0763622710
Yep, Laurence. HIROSHIMA. ISBN:
0590208330
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