The Green Glass Sea

Bibliography:
Klages, Ellen. 2006. The Green Glass Sea. New York, NY: Viking. ISBN: 1417820152

Plot Summary:
Dewey Kerrigan is a smart kid, but has faced many challenges in her short life. Her mom abandoned her, her father is away working and her grandmother, the only stability she has had, has just had a stroke. Dewey finds herself on her way to meet her father at a top secret location, where is working on a project for the Army, in the middle of World War II. Although Dewey is nervous about the new life she is in for, she finds she is surrounded by some of the greatest scientists in the world (who are all working on “the gadget”), much to her delight.

Along the way, the reader is introduced to Suze Gordon, a tomboy who just wants to fit in, but doesn’t quite. She is leery of Dewey, even bullying her at certain points, to show the other kids that she is nothing like “Screwy Dewey”. Eventually, Dewey must move in with Suze and her family when her dad is called away on assignment, creating a tense situation for both the girls. After the president dies, the girls find common ground and find out the other is not as bad as they may have once appeared. Each encourages the other in what they excel at (for Suze, it’s art, for Dewey, it’s building things) and find that even in the face of tragedy, they can rely on each other.

Critical Analysis:
Klages creates a mystery around what is truly happening at the site that has become known as Los Alamos, just as it would have been to the children that lived on the Hill. She focuses on the human connections that are made between children and parents, as well as between the children themselves, using Los Alamos as a backdrop. The setting is described in such a way that the reader truly gets a vision for how cut off from the rest of the world Los Alamos was in the time. Much of the description of the base is describe in detail by the characters, allowing the reader to get an account of what a child would find important about life on an army base. Vocabulary used by the characters is typical for the time period and contributes to the feeling of the novel.

Characters in the book are knowledgeable about things that kids would be, leaving what is really happening at Los Alamos to be a mystery that is revealed as the book progresses. Historical figures that lived and worked in Los Alamos are introduced throughout the course of the book, adding to the authenticity the book creates. Most of all, the characters are thoughtfully developed, growing into their own in the course of the novel.

Awards and Reviews:
Winner, 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Winner, 2007 Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature
Winner, 2007 New Mexico State Book Award (YA)
Finalist, 2007 Quill Awards (Young Adult)
Finalist, Northern California Book Awards, 2007 (Children's)
Finalist, Locus Awards, 2007 (Best First Novel)
Book Sense #1 Children's Pick - Winter 2006/2007
One Book, One Nebraska for Kids - 2009
2009 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award Master List, (Illinois)
2008 NeNe Award List (Hawaii)
2008 Bluegrass Award Master List (Kentucky)
2007-08 Maine Student Book Award List
2007-08 Isinglass Teen Read List (New Hampshire)
2009 Rhode Island Teen Book Award List
2008-09 South Carolina Junior Book Award List
Starred Review in Publisher's Weekly
Starred Review in The Horn Book
A Horn Book Fanfare selection
A Junior Library Guild selection
A Scholatic Book Club selection

"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." – John Green, Booklist

"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." – Steven Engelfried, School Library Journal

Connections:
*What really happened at Los Alamos? Find some historical picture books that show Los Alamos as Suze and Dewey would have seen it and share them! Look for books about what children at Los Alamos would have done in the days that Dewey and Suze lived there.
*Comic books are mentioned quite a bit in the story – find some comics from the time period the book is set in and compare/contrast them to modern day comics.
*”The gadget” is a code work for the atomic bomb, but how was it used? Using age-appropriate literature, cover the aftermath of the bomb’s invention and its use in the second World War.

Book jacket found on: http://northchicagopubliclibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/the-green-glass-sea-by-ellen-klages.jpg