Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Feb 03, 2009

Luann rated it:

When I was in high school, I did an extra credit report on Oppenheimer, "Little Boy," and "Fat Man." It was all new to me, and so interesting and horrifying that I have always been very interested in that area of history. This is a work of historical fiction about the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb and their families. It is told from the point of view of the children, who were not given many details of the highly classified project and thus not many details make More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2008

Lisa rated it:

Some time needs to elapse for me to see if this book makes as much of an imprint on me as it now seems, but this is one I might consider for my favorites shelf.

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.

The author is a terrific storyteller, and this is a perfectly crafted book.

I loved the main charact More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Teresa rated it:

This story was unexpectedly enjoyable for me. I was vaguely aware of what it was about, but it was highly rated and I knew the story contained a young girl who loves math. Being a lover of math myself, I couldn't resist checking the audio version out from the library so my son could also enjoy it, which he did.

The story starts off with Dewey, a 10-year math and mechanics lover, on her way to being reunited with her father, who has been moved to Los Alamos to work on the "gadge More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 10, 2011

MissDziura rated it:

Ellen Klage's book is most approriate for readers in 7th and 8th grade, although 8th grade readers will probably understand the historical context more because WWII is part of the 8th grade history curriculum in most schools. Dewey is a likable chracter who has to uproot her life once again to meet her dad at "The Hill," (Los Alamos). Dewey's father is one of many scientists working on the gadget (the atomic bomb). The story is slow in parts but it becomes more about the frienship D More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2008

CLM rated it:

It was foolish of me to think reading one chapter late last night was a good idea. I read the whole book, and sobbed. It was late enough when I started. Sigh.

What an unusual topic, and how vividly depicted and beautifully written. I loved Dewey's interaction with real people, not overdone but very convincing. Lots of little touches were fascinating, as for instance, the difficulty applying to college from a school that didn't exist, or the casual description of a five cent packag More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Julie rated it:

Dewey’s dad is a scientist and ever since WWII began, he’s been helping the government with a top secret project. When Dewey’s grandma has a stroke, she travels by herself to a secret military base in New Mexico. Even though she’s only ten years old, she has always liked math and science and making her own little projects from stray gears and nuts and bolts. Along with her leg brace and glasses, this makes her an easy target for other kids to pick on her.

At the new base where she li More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2008

Rachael rated it:

When I picked up this book, I was SO excited to read it because while I've read a lot of novels set during WWII, I've never really thought about the scientists (or their families) who worked on developing the "gadget." The unusual nature of the setting, and the "casting" of Dewey Kerrigan, a techie little girl who has spent so much of her childhood alone, really intrigued me. And there were aspects of this book that I liked, but given my anticipation, I was disappointed in More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2008

Jess rated it:

Dewey (11) lives in a town which can't be named. Her father, a scientist, works on a "gadget" (along with hundreds of others) that can't be discussed. Welcome to daily life in the Manhattan project.

Characters the reader can relate to with understandable and clear prose. Readers get the feel of what it's like for children living in Los Alamos while their parents build the Atom bomb.

Klages has a good grasp on what it's like to be a kid when it comes to: not bei More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 17, 2008

Emily rated it:

Dewey Kerrigan, raised by her grandmother until she has a stroke and goes into a nursing home, is sent to live with her father is New Mexico. Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1943: the place where chemists, physicists, and other scientists are working on creating the atomic bomb. All of this is shrouded in secrecy, and Dewey herself knows nothing of it. Her life is concerned with smaller things: having conversations with Enrico Fermi and Richard Feynman, bonding with a loving but overworked father, wo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 20, 2008

Jenny rated it:

This is a well-deserved award winning book for young adult historical fiction. It is set during WWII in Los Alamos, NM where the best scientists, mathematicians, and military brass are building the atom bomb. The interesting aspect is that the story is told from the point of view of the children of these very same scientists, etc. who have come to NM with their parents. Of course everything going on is secret. The live in a place that officially doesn't exist, they can't tell anyone about it More...

0 comments like

Dec 24, 2008

Hedy rated it:

I really liked this book, but it is meant for kids a bit younger. The end is really sad, like Nicole told me, but it's great writing. The characters are SOO lovable. I really like Dewey. The only part I didn't like was that it was sort of easy reading for such a strong topic. Read it!! :D

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I really wanted to like this book. Really. Unfortunately, I didn't. The historical setting of Los Alamos was intriguing, but I had qualms with the plot and its predicatbility. It moved rather slowly for me and also didn't say enough about how devastating the Gadget was.

*spoiler*

I couldn't understand for the life of me why the Gadget's effects of creating the Green Glass Sea were supposed to be a fitting last connection between Dewey and her father. This turn of ev More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2009

Barky rated it:

This work of historical fiction tells the story of the Manhattan Project through the eyes of some of the children who might have experienced it by proxy as their parents (scientists affiliated with the project) worked on it in secret.

Dewey Kerrigan comes to live with her father in New Mexico when she is eleven. She’s small for her age and doesn’t fit in well with other kids. Also, one of her legs is longer than the other due to a childhood accident. She’s really smart, though, an More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2008

Jacquelyn rated it:

Genre: Historical fiction Reading level: Ages 9-12
Unusual friendships are formed in this legendary setting on the eve of destruction. Dewey, a bright adolescent girl, heads west to be with her father after her grandmother’s stroke. Dad is working at a top-secret location in Los Alamos, New Mexico, called “the Hill” by the residents. The war is coming to a close in Europe, but the eternal war in the classroom rages on in this cloistered group. Disabled as a toddler and gifted with the b More...

0 comments like

Oct 10, 2011

Allison rated it:

This book was very different from what I thought it would be. I'm not really a war buff, so I was hesitant to read a book about WWII. However, I love New Mexico, and I was interested in reading about the founding of Los Alamos. My fears were unfounded, though, because this book rarely touches on the war. I mean, you know that it's going on and that Dewey's and Suze's parents are working on something for the bomb, but the war doesn't directly affect the lives of the main characters. Really, the More...

0 comments like

Aug 05, 2011

Natalie rated it:

I read the Green Glass Sea on a recommendation from a fellow teacher considering teaching it and finished it in a afternoon at the pool (and accidentally water damaged 3 pages--yikes!!!). This YA book is touching and sweet, and a little scary, too--I actually learned a lot about the making of the atomic bomb. The book made me think about how there were real people on this side of the bomb affected by its creation, and what their life may have been like while working on it. I would like to kno More...

0 comments like

May 18, 2011

Vikki rated it:

this book came highly recommended, though the friend who recommended it pointed out that i might want to wait a couple of years before sharing it with my 8-year-old. i'm not sure how long i'll wait; it's a beautiful book that i do want to share with her, but i'm not ready yet to introduce the concept of the atomic bomb, or what happened during world war 2 that propelled the US to use it. that said, lots of children's fiction--maybe even most of it--deals with disturbing themes (parental death be More...

0 comments like

Apr 04, 2011

Becky marked it as to-read

I need to read this book! The paperback version includes the author's Scott O'Dell acceptance speech, which has one of my favorite statements about historical fiction:

"A lot of people think history is boring. It's just names and dates and facts that you have to memorize for a test...Up until last October, I was primarily a science fiction writer. Which means I'm in a unique position to recognize that this -- [holds up The Green Glass Sea] -- is a time machine. Because that's reall More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2010

Nancy rated it:

In 1943, Dewey Kerrigan’s life is changed forever when she is sent to live with her father in Los Alamos, a town that officially does not exist on any maps. Here lives a community of some of the brightest minds in the world. They are all heavily at work on a special gadget that can help win the war for the United States. Here Dewey meets Suze, another young girl that she initially does not get along with, but eventually becomes her closest friend. The Green Glass Sea is a interesting historical More...

0 comments like

Jul 17, 2010

Patience rated it:

Dewey Kerrigan moved to live with her Dad at Los Alamos in 1943. He was one of the hand-picked physicists and renowned master-minds to research the "Gadget" which became the first atomic bomb. Her Dad was a single parent committed to the "war effort". This was an inside look at how this community under the direction of Oppenheimer functioned. In many respects the young people related to one another as in any community but this isolated New Mexico town was cloistered and ha More...

0 comments like

Feb 28, 2010

Ch_jank-caporale rated it:

I was uncomfortable reading this book because of the title and the subject matter. I've been to Los Alamos and know about the green glass of the title. Geiger counters were not very accurate back then, and scientists didn't know which levels of radiation would have lasting effects. I cringed at the end of the book, knowing not only what the radio report on Hiroshima would mean for the world, but what the shoe box full of green glass would mean for Dewey and the Gordons. Whew! Hard one to finish More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2009

Lizz rated it:

Dear Jimmy Kerrigan:

Why can't you be real and not in 1941 and not in New Mexico working on a top-secret gadget for the United States as World War II rages across the globe? From your Irish tenor to your wool sweaters, from your crazy intelligence to your devoted, sweet, straight-forward relationship with your kick-ass daughter, Dewey,I am head over heels. And you're a MINOR character!

I'm so sorry your drunk-ass wife went and left you and your baby girl, but you'd be bette More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2009

Bernice rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 28, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

We read this for Betsy-Tacy. I thought it was lovely, the story of two girls living at Los Alamos during the war because their parents are research scientists. I loved the combination of the somewhat traditional childhood issues (not fitting in, being labeled as liking "boy" things like math and science, becoming obsessed with comic books) with the extremely unique setting of Manhattan Project. One of the things I liked the most is that the whole tone of the book is very in the moment More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2009

thefourthvine rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2009

Shaya rated it:

I thought the Green Glass Sea was an okay book. The basic storyline is that all these top scientists are in an army camp in New Mexico building "the gadget". And their children got to come along in some circumstances. Dewey is a geeky, inventor, 11-year-old. She comes with her loving father and really enjoys being around all the scientists and getting to have discussions about her inventions and how things work. Suze is an artistic girl with two scientist parents. She tries to fit in w More...

0 comments like

May 29, 2009

Nancy rated it:

Ten-year-old Dewey Kerrigan, who has been living with her grandmother for some years, is reunited with her father and taken to Los Alamos where he is doing "war work." When he is called to Washington, she stays temporarily, with the Gordans, a family with two scientist parents, and a girl her own age, Suze. Suze does not appreciate her presence, and when Dewey's father is hit by a car and killed, Dewey moves in on a semi-permanent basis. Her grandmother is in a nursing home, and her mo More...

0 comments like

Mar 03, 2010

Lauma rated it:

A thoughtful perspective of what life was like for an 11 year old girl, in the 1940's, that joins her father in Los Alamos--a very secret place where an elite group of scientists are working on the Manhattan Project (the first atomic bomb).

The story centers on Dewey, who has endured painful loneliness--a mom who abandoned her as a young child, a father who is always away working on secret projects, a grandmother who had a stroke, and children who tease her because of her unique and i More...

1 comment like

Oct 24, 2010

Izzi rated it:

In The Green Glass Sea, ten year old Dewey Kerrigan gets a call that she can finally be reunited with her father who has been working in a secret location to help end World War II. When she finally gets to see him, she finds out her father is living on a place called the Hill where a large number of scientists were gathered to work on a secret project that is supposed to end the war. The Hill is a government run area with guards all over and scientists working day and night to perfec More...

1 comment like

Jul 06, 2010

Stevecrandell rated it:

This book offers a good look at friendships, and the social context of the race to build a nuclear bomb. But the pace is slow, too dry for many middle schoolers.

11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is an amateur inventor and geekish loner: she also has a limp that sets her further apart. She lives within the secret testing grounds of New Mexico during World War Two.

Dewey’s dad is a scientist, always in the lab or on the road. Her mom abandoned the family long ago. Dewey is half-f More...

0 comments like

reviews