Bibliography:
Klages, Ellen. 2008. THE GREEN GLASS SEA. New York, NY: Puffin Books a div. of Penguin
Young Readers Group. ISBN: 978-0-14-241149-0
Plot Summary:
This is the story about Dewey Kerrigan, she lost her nana and was going to where her father was working. Although she was used to not having him around because of his work, she was excited to be with him finally. When she gets to “the hill,” there are a whole set of rules and secrets she has to live by. Completely surrounded by guards, life at “the hill” has its own codes and language. There were a lot of people like her father that were working on a secret project, often she was left on her own to explore and work on her gadgets. She meets Suze, and although they aren’t exactly the best of friends, they share alike circumstances and end up changing towards each other when events happen and Dewey has to live with Suze and her family. Life at “the hill” was like a living scientific encyclopedia for Dewey, and whenever she needed an answer to a question, she had the best scientists to converse with. Although they didn’t know what “the gadget” was everyone knew that it was important and top secret. One day tragedy strikes and Dewey’s life was forever changed.
Critical Analysis:
This is a delicate story of a young girl who is a budding scientist who lives in closed surroundings, but to Dewey it had a lot of good things about it. Her favorite place was the dump, where she could find parts to tinker with to create her gadgets. She had to learn to talk in code since it wasn’t allowed to be known that there were a whole bunch of scientists who lived and worked on “the hill.” What could be so important to be a complete secret? In Los Alamos, on “the hill,” physicists were known as “fizzlers,” chemists were known as “stinkers,” and the secret project was known as “the gadget.” Dewey was extremely bright in math and was moved a few grades ahead of her classmates. She is detached from the rest of the girls her age, and since she’s ahead, she befriends a couple of boys that also live on the hill and who made a club house, no girls allowed; but they made an exception for Dewey. Suze tried to make friends with the other girls, but they didn’t accept her. They nicknamed her “the truck” for her size and shape, and Dewey was known as “screwy Dewey.”Both being outsiders is ultimately what drew them together.
Ellen Klages drew life into this odd time in history and told her story through the eyes of the young. The making of the atomic bomb did affect more than the people who were making it and for a long time, Los Alamos nor Trinity existed on maps.
To read an excerpt: http://ellenklages.com/greenglasssea_excerpt.html
Reviews/Excerpts:
• Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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. Eleven-year-old Dewey, the daughter of a math professor, is shunned by the other girls at the camp due to her passionate interest in mechanics and her fascination with the dump, which holds all sorts of mechanisms and tools she can use for her projects. Her classmate Suze is also often snubbed and has been nicknamed "Truck" by her classmates ("'cause she's kind of big and likes to push people around," explains one boy). The two outcasts reluctantly come together when Dewey's father is called away to Washington, D.C., and Dewey temporarily moves in with Suze's family. Although the girls do not get along at first (Suze draws a chalk line in her room to separate their personal spaces), they gradually learn to rely on each other for comfort, support and companionship. Details about the era-popular music, pastimes and products-add authenticity to the story as do brief appearances of some historic figures including Robert Oppenheimer....the author provides much insight into the controversies surrounding the making of the bomb and brings to life the tensions of war experienced by adults and children alike.
The Horn Book (starred review)
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.
School Library Journal
Grade 5-8: Two girls spend a year in Los Alamos as their parents work on the secret gadget that will end World War II. Dewey is a mechanically minded 10-year-old who gets along fine with the scientists at the site, but is teased by girls her own age. When her mathematician father is called away, she moves in with Suze, who initially detests her new roommate. The two draw closer, though, and their growing friendship is neatly set against the tenseness of the Los Alamos compound as the project nears completion. Clear prose brings readers right into the unusual atmosphere of the secretive scientific community, seen through the eyes of the kids and their families. Dewey is an especially engaging character, plunging on with her mechanical projects and ignoring any questions about gender roles. Occasional shifts into first person highlight the protagonist's most emotional moments, including her journey to the site.... After the atomic bomb test succeeds, ethical concerns of both youngsters and adults intensify as the characters learn how it is ultimately used. 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
In November of 1943, 10-year-old budding inventor Dewey Kerrigan sets off on a cross-country train ride to be with her father, who is engaged in “war work.” She’s busy designing a radio when a fellow passenger named Dick Feynman offers to help her. Feynman’s presence in this finely wrought first novel is the first clue that Dewey is headed for Los Alamos. The mystery and tension surrounding “war work” and what Dewey knows only as “the gadget” trickles down to the kids living in the Los Alamos compound, who often do without adult supervision. Although disliked by her girl classmates, “Screwy Dewey” enjoys Los Alamos. There are lots of people to talk with about radios (including “Oppie”), and she gets to dig through the dump for discarded science stuff. However, when Dewey’s father leaves for Washington, she’s left to fend off the biggest bully in Los Alamos....The characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes.
Awards:
v Winner the 2007 winner - Scott O'Dell Award (Historical Fiction)
v 2007 winner - New Mexico Book Award (Young Adult)
v 2007 winner - Judy Lopez Award (Children's Literature)
v Finalist for the 2007 Quill Awards.
v Finalist for the Northern California Book Awards, 2007
v Finalist for the 2007 Locus Award for Best First Novel.
v #1 on the Book Sense Winter 2006/2007 Children's Picks List
v One Book, One Nebraska for Kids - 2009
v 2009 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award Master List, (Illinois)
v 2008 Ne Ne Award List (Hawaii)
v 2008 Bluegrass Award Master List (Kentucky)
v 2007-08 Maine Student Book Award List
v 2007-08 Isinglass Teen Read List (New Hampshire)
v 2009 Rhode Island Teen Book Award List
v 2008-09 South Carolina Junior Book Award List
v Starred Review in Publisher's Weekly
v Starred Review in The Horn Book
v A Horn Book Fanfare selection
v A Junior Library Guild selection
v A Scholastic Book Club selection
Connections:
1. Reread the letter on page 190 that Jimmy Kerrigan writes to Dewey from Washington, D.C. Then reread the passage on page 199 in which Dewey explains to Suze what the letter really says. Exchange letters with a classmate, using a code like the one Jimmy Kerrigan used. See if you can break your classmate's code. What information did you try to pass along in secret?
2. Using descriptions from the text, draw a map of the Hill. Include as many places as you can remember from the book. Possible locations to plot on your map might be the Tech PX, the dump, Morganville, and the tree house. Make sure to include a legend for your map. Then, compare your map with a classmate's map. How are the maps similar? How are they different?
3. Dewey and Suze like to read comic books. Some of their favorite characters are Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and Captain America. Use a blank sheet of paper and colored pencils or crayons to create your own comic book hero or heroine. Give your character a name. What special powers does he or she have?
References to comic books and comic book characters can be found on pages 87, 151, 181, 195, 202, 242, and 257.
References to comic books and comic book characters can be found on pages 87, 151, 181, 195, 202, 242, and 257.
v Literature Circle Guide to The Green Glass Sea - http://www.teacher.scholastic.com/clubs/lit_circle_pdfs/greenglasssea_t.pdf
v THE GADGET by Paul Zindel and WHERE THE GROUND MEETS THE SKY by Jacqueline Davies are two other middle-grade novels that take place in Los Alamos during the 1940’s.
v Discussion and writing activities in the back of the book.
*****in the reader’s supplement in the back of the book, Klages adds that she’s working on a sequel to THE GREEN GLASS SEA.*****
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