#15--Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

The two months since my last post have flown by...I've been planning an August wedding (we got engaged on Easter, so we have a quick turn-around!) and have finally found time to read again with most of the planning taken care of at this point.  :)

After several people praised Bomb, I had to pick it up and give it a go.  It had several things going for it that made me want to read it (other than all the recommendations I received)....it is about history, it is about spies, and it is about advanced science that is accessible to my level of science--which means, it is accessible to a middle school science student. :)  (I find science fascinating, yet rather intimidating, so for nuclear fission to be made accessible to me is awesome!!)

The book opens in May of 1950 with two FBI agents arriving at Harry Gold's home in Philadelphia to search it for evidence of spying for the Soviets.  Gold finally admits to spying and says he needs to tell the whole story.  The story continues with how Harry (as well as others) got pulled into spying for the Soviets. 

In 1938 a German chemist named Otto Hahn discovered that he could cause uranium atoms to split, physicists around the world began to experiment with this new phenomenon.  Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939, encouraging him to begin funding research on building a bomb with this new knowledge, as Hitler and the Germans were certainly working toward that same end.  Should Hitler attain this powerful weapon first, the war would be over and Germany would be the victors. 

Once the United States began their research in earnest, Robert Oppenheimer was named the director of the Manhattan Project (the name for the American's bomb project).  Oppenheimer began to recruit top scientists from across the country, many who were European Jews who had escaped Hitler's massacre.  Once the top secret research was started, not only were the Germans trying to get their hands on the information that the Americans had, but Stalin and the KGB were even more insistent on getting the information.  So much so that the KGB was actually able to find individuals working on the Manhattan Project who were supportive of Russia and Communism and willing to give highly classified information over to the Soviets.

When President Truman dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Stalin was furious that the American's had beat him.  By August 29, 1949, the Russians had their first successful atomic bomb, which ignited the Cold War. 

While I knew some of the details about the Manhattan Project and the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  However, I did not know most of the details of the race between Germany, Russian and the United States to be the first to build an atomic weapon, and even less of the spying that went on to accomplish it.  I had heard of several of the big names: Robert Oppenheimer, the Rosenbergs, and Moe Berg, but beyond those names, everyone else was a new character to me who was fascinating to learn about.

This book is definitely going to go into my book talk rotation for nonfiction for next year!!

Happy Reading!!

#8--Dead End in Norvelt--Jack Gantos

I happened to pick up a newspaper today from last week and was flipping through it when I noticed an article announcing the 2012 Newbery and Caldecott winners.  The Newbery Award had been given to Jack Gantos for his book, Dead End in Norvelt.  I knew we had a few copies of this book because I had purchased them after attending a conference on new young adult literature in the fall.  I quickly went to the stacks and grabbed one of the copies off the shelf to bring home with me.

This story is part fiction and part nonfiction....and I would love to know exactly where the line is drawn!  The main character, Jack Gantos, has started off his summer vacation grounded for life!  His prospects aren't looking good for an early release when his father makes him mow down his mother's corn field...which makes his mom clamp down even further in his punishment.  He is only allowed out of his room to do chores, use the bathroom, possibly eat meals with his family, and to help his neighbor Miss Volker write obituaries for the town paper.  The town of Norvelt was named for First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, because of her interest in the town--it was created out of the Great Depression as a way for the unemployed miners to get "a hand-up instead of a hand-out."  There were 250 original families in Norvelt and Miss Volker has vowed to write the obituaries for all the old-timers and be the last one standing--she is also the medical examiner, a post she was given by Mrs. Roosevelt and one she takes very seriously.

Jack has a "tiny problem"--his nose squirts blood anytime he gets startled, spooked or over-excited.  Add to this, Miss Volker has arthritis so bad that she has to warm up her hands in hot parafin wax so they work--the first time Jack sees this creates a rather amusing scene, as he believes she is melting her body parts off to be eaten.  And his best friend is a girl--who is the daughter of the local undertaker, and enjoys torturing Jack with stories of dead bodies and other gross things.  Oh, and these's also someone buying up the old houses in Norvelt and moving them to West Virginia, and even the possibility of a murder investigation too.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book, and I will be sharing it with students in the very near future.

I looked up Norvelt, PA, and discovered that the town actually exists in Westmoreland County, southeast of Pittsburgh, PA.  It also looks like much of the historical facts offered up by Miss Volker to Jack as they write obituaries and Jack learns to drive her car (very under-age), are pretty acurate....which makes me wonder even more how much of the rest of this story is fact and how much of it is fiction!!

Happy Reading!