The Green Glass Sea

by Ellen Klages Narrated by Julie Dretzin

Overview

This first novel from Nebula Award-winning short story writer Ellen Klages was picked as a Junior Library Guild selection and named a Book Sense #1 Children's Pick. It follows a young girl named Dewey, whose father is part of a super-secret project in 1943 Los Alamos. Dewey, a gifted scientist herself, slowly realizes the implications of "the gadget" her father is working on. She and Suze, another Los Alamos child, find comfort in each other's friendship. "An intense but accessible page-turner ... history and story are drawn together with confidence."-Horn Book Magazine, starred review

Editorial Reviews

...intense but accessible page-turner, firmly belongs to the girls and their families; history and story are drawn together with confidence. (The Horn Book Magazine, starred review)

Kirkus Reviews

The author's acknowledgement at the end of this work reveals that the last chapter was originally a short story that subsequently inspired the rest. This insight into the writing process makes sense of (but fails to redeem) the over 200 pages that precede that final chapter. Obviously (perhaps too obviously) well researched and undeniably earnest, this child's-eye view of the development of the atom bomb seems unlikely to find a wide or enthusiastic audience. Crammed with period detail like cigarette brands and radio models, as well as the names of the famous scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, the narrative offers plenty of information but little insight. Main characters Dewey (the bright, plucky, soon-to-be orphan) and Suze (the bully desperate to have friends) are initially antagonistic, but eventually become friends. Unfortunately, too much description and too little action means these characters fail to come to life, making their interactions unconvincing and uninteresting. Secondary characters are even more broadly drawn and less engaging. Unusual and thoughtful, but ultimately unsuccessful. (Fiction. 10-14)

From the Publisher

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.”—Publishers Weekly, 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." -The Horn Book Magazine, starred review

OCT/NOV 07 - AudioFile

The quiet yet powerful story of 1940s Los Alamos saves an otherwise unremarkable audiobook. Julie Dretzin captures 11-year-old Dewey's timid genius and 12-year-old Suze's bravado in the face of war and change. From the time they arrive at "the Hill," the story follows the two girls as they observe their parents developing the first nuclear weapon. Dretzin’s subdued tones mirror Klages's understated style but rarely elevate its subtle technique and emotion. The girls meet and grow closer over a long span of time, making it difficult to maintain the audiobook's intensity. Dretzin's descriptions of science and engineering are clear and unforced, but the story's impact, not the delivery, distinguishes this audiobook. C.A. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171109349
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	02/21/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Treasure at the Dump

Dewey took a final bite of her apple and, without taking her eyes off her book, put the core into the brown paper sack on the ground next to her. She was reading a biography, the life of Faraday, and she was just coming to the exciting part where he figured out about electricity and magnetism. She leaned contentedly against Papa's shoulder and turned the page.

Today they had chosen to sit against the west wall of the commissary for their picnic lunch. It offered a little bit of shade, they could look out at the Pond, and it was three minutes from Papa's office, which meant they could spend almost the whole hour reading together.

"Dews?" Papa said a few minutes later. "Remember the other night when we were talking about how much math and music are related?"

Dewey nodded.

"Well, there was a quote I couldn't quite recall, and I just found it. Listen." He began to read, very slowly. " 'Music is the hidden arithmetic of the soul, which does not know that it deals with numbers. Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.' That's exactly what I was talking about."

"Who said it?" Dewey asked.

"Leibniz. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He was an interesting guy, a mathematician and a philosopher and a musician to boot. You'd like him."

"Can I borrow that book when you're done?"

"I don't think you'd get far," he laughed. He turned and showed her his book, bound in very old, brown leather that was flaking off in places. The page it was open to was covered in an odd, heavy black type.

"It's in German," Dewey said, surprised. That explained why he had read so slowly. He'd been translating. "So is Leibniz a Nazi?"

"Hardly. He died more than two hundred years ago, long before there were any Nazis." He shook his head. "Don't make the mistake of throwing out a whole culture just because some madmen speak the same language. Remember, Beethoven was German. And Bach, and-"

The rest of his sentence was interrupted by the shrill siren from the Tech Area. He sighed. "Time to go back to my own numbers." He closed his book, then leaned over and kissed Dewey on the top of her head. "What're you up to this afternoon?" He stood up, brushed the crumbs from his sandwich off his lap into the dirt, then brushed the dirt itself off the back of his pants.

Dewey squinted up at him. "I think I'll sit here and read for a while. A couple more chapters anyway. Then I'm going to the dump. Some of the labs are moving into the Gamma Building, now that it's done, and people always throw out good stuff when they move."

He smiled. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"I don't know yet. I need some bigger gears and some knobs and dials. And some ball bearings," she added after a short pause. "I'll show you at dinner if I find anything really special."

"Deal. We're just analyzing data this afternoon, so I may actually get out at 5:30. If you get home before me, put the casserole in the oven and we can eat around seven." He tucked his book under his arm.

"Okay." Dewey watched him walk around the corner of the building, then turned back to her book.

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