Module 5
Historical Fiction
Award Winning Book
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Klages, Ellen. 2006. THE GREEN GLASS SEA. New York, NY: Penguin Group. ISBN 0670061344
2. PLOT SUMMARY
In this historical novel, Klages has captured the tragedies of war with her powerful descriptions of the effect it has on people’s lives and on the land where they lived. They year is 1943 and the setting is a secret place somewhere in Mexico known as “the hill.” WWII is a reality. The town is Los Alamos and officially does not exist. Los Alamos is filled with scientist and mathematicians from all over America and Europe. Dewey’s father is a civilian and a mathematician. They are working on “the gadget” in secret. A gadget that will change the lives of everyone and the world they live in to make it unlivable for all. The gadget is the Atomic Bomb. The characters Dewey Kerrigan and Suze Gordon along with their family are not real, but the historical setting and event are very real.
Klages, Ellen. 2006. THE GREEN GLASS SEA. New York, NY: Penguin Group. ISBN 0670061344
2. PLOT SUMMARY
In this historical novel, Klages has captured the tragedies of war with her powerful descriptions of the effect it has on people’s lives and on the land where they lived. They year is 1943 and the setting is a secret place somewhere in Mexico known as “the hill.” WWII is a reality. The town is Los Alamos and officially does not exist. Los Alamos is filled with scientist and mathematicians from all over America and Europe. Dewey’s father is a civilian and a mathematician. They are working on “the gadget” in secret. A gadget that will change the lives of everyone and the world they live in to make it unlivable for all. The gadget is the Atomic Bomb. The characters Dewey Kerrigan and Suze Gordon along with their family are not real, but the historical setting and event are very real.
The story begins with Dewey
having to relocate from St Louis to a secret place somewhere in Mexico. The mom left her when she was very young and
she has been living with her grandmother who is now in a home due to a
stroke. Dewey had to move in with an
uncaring neighbor while waiting for her father to come get her. Traveling alone, Dewey was uncertain just
where she was going. When her father
finally meets her, she feels like a package.
Dewey is met by hostile groups of peers, including Suze Gordon. She is ridiculed when she arrives because she
has to wear a special shoe on one foot.
Her interest in the dump and mechanical interest in building gadgets
like radios and a time machine is the reason everyone made fun of her. Suze was cruel to Dewey in the beginning, but
overtime they became good friends. As
the story closes a test of the atomic bomb has taken place and the after
effects of sheets of green glass and dead animal are seen. Mrs. Gordon questions the decision to create
such a powerful bomb that can destroy everything including the world.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This is an authentic story of the scientist and their families in the year leading up to the atomic bomb. The sentences are filled with historical details and powerful descriptive language that places the reader at the scene in the moment. Suze describes the green wooden buildings and the hills as almost the same everyday. Dewey describes “the hills as natural fortress, a flat mesa fissured with canyons on three sides. The land didn’t slope down, it dropped off abruptly, vertically, with sheer cliffs that ended in tree-lined streams hundred of feet below.” For anyone who enjoys reading history and discovering the results of war through the eyes of those who have seen it this is an awesome heartfelt novel filled with authentic information in story form. The invention of the atomic bomb and the question of its existence is left up to the minds of the character and the reader. The devastation is caused with the hear being hot enough to melt the top layer of dirt into glass. The charring of shrubbery and killing of wildlife is easily seen through the author’s powerful description of the land. The characters reveal their thoughts about this secret place and the challenges their parents face. The details that describe the people, the land, and the times are so well worded. The reader has no difficulty in visualizing the scenes that the author describes. The author conveys to the reader the same question she feels. “What have we done?”
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This is an authentic story of the scientist and their families in the year leading up to the atomic bomb. The sentences are filled with historical details and powerful descriptive language that places the reader at the scene in the moment. Suze describes the green wooden buildings and the hills as almost the same everyday. Dewey describes “the hills as natural fortress, a flat mesa fissured with canyons on three sides. The land didn’t slope down, it dropped off abruptly, vertically, with sheer cliffs that ended in tree-lined streams hundred of feet below.” For anyone who enjoys reading history and discovering the results of war through the eyes of those who have seen it this is an awesome heartfelt novel filled with authentic information in story form. The invention of the atomic bomb and the question of its existence is left up to the minds of the character and the reader. The devastation is caused with the hear being hot enough to melt the top layer of dirt into glass. The charring of shrubbery and killing of wildlife is easily seen through the author’s powerful description of the land. The characters reveal their thoughts about this secret place and the challenges their parents face. The details that describe the people, the land, and the times are so well worded. The reader has no difficulty in visualizing the scenes that the author describes. The author conveys to the reader the same question she feels. “What have we done?”
4. REVIEW EXCERPT (S)
From Good Reads: “In this novel everything so vivid: the feelings and thoughts and actions of the characters, the many descriptions of food, the train ride, the community, the terrain, the record albums, so much, all of it.”
From
Publishers 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 definitely for
older readers. I would say 10 and
older. It would be a great read for kids
that are really curious and interested in history. It is friendly to them because of the two
girls and their friendship.
*Another good war book might
be THE UPSTAIRS ROOM. I read a summary of it online and it seems really
good.
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