Its Monday! What are you reading?

Bomb the Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

I choose this book based off it being a Newbery Award winner as well as fitting for my semester challenge.  This book is written for reading level 5^th-9^th grade and has also been awarded the following awards;Newbery Honor (2013), Sibert Medal (2013), Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award Nominee (2015), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award Nominee (2014), YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction (2013)National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature (2012) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13170021-bomb

This is a Nonfiction book about the history and the science in World War II, of the building a Nuclear Bomb.

There are two climaxes in this story.  One being the detonation of a plutonium bombs in the Trinity project and in Japan.  The other climax is the hunt for and prosecution of those who are responsible for propelling the threat of nuclear warfare worldwide by stealing and sharing the classified information concerning the bomb.  The characters Hall, Feynman, Gold & Fuchs involved in the leaking the details of the bomb to Soviet Spies are sentenced. Even the main character Robert Oppenheimer who loves America and acted only in patriotic duty is persecuted by the government and more importantly by his own guilt.

The Plot of this fast paced book revolves around the chemist Robert Oppenheimer’s race to and success of creating the world’s first nuclear bomb after a discovery by a German Chemist in December of 1938.  Hall, Feynman, Gold & Fuchs are traitors to America along with Greengrass.  President Truman, Churchill, Einstein and Stalin are all connect to the race.As the action rises we are reminded over and over again of several things 1. we are all in this the whole human race 2. we are in a race with the Germany and the Soviet Union. Both of these reminders to come us as read about the growing cold war aka ‘Red Scare” and in modern day.Robert Oppenheimer grows more withdrawn, and smokes heavier as the weight of his actions make their footprints in history.

The falling action comes between the bombing on Japan and the Soviets destination of their first nuclear bomb.  More falling action comes in the ending of book when readers are brought to reality of what we have read, “Super Bombs can eliminate the human race”, India vs. Pakistan exchanging nuclear bomb attacks will ignite “massive firestorms, sending enormous amounts of dust and smoke into the atmosphere.  This would block some of the sun’s light from reaching the earth making the planet colder and darker – for about ten years. Farming would collapse, and people all over the glove would starve to death.  And that’s only half of the one percent of all the atomic bombs on earth were used”.

The most important word in this text is Bomb.  This word is attached to craftsmanship, power, knowledge, regret, theft and suffering. On a scale of 1-4 I give the book 4+, it is a must read, our society needs to know the history and destructive power of the Hydrogen Bomb. The Theme of this book is the destructive power of a bomb that man has created shown literally in the attack on Japan and figuratively in the end where hypothesis of additional use will cause death to mankind.

As for the characters we are given details about their private lives and the secret lives they lead in their respective professions.  We can feel their internal tension and outward fears.  The author gives is a full range of emotion chapter to chapter in the tone of urgency.

The design of the book maybe intimidating to some readers.  I has few pictures and the specific edition that I read (pictured above) has 4 of the awards that it won.  The pictures pasted on the front cover may be inviting as they were to me or they may formidable.

Due to the mood of this book if read in school it would be best read by a teacher who has strength in history and is able to reduce fears in the students as they arise. This story is told in 3^rd person event by event and I will recommend the read to others.