748 books
—
791 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “The Green Glass Sea (Green Glass, #1)” as Want to Read:
The Green Glass Sea
( The Gordon Family Saga #1)
by
It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father, but no one, not her father nor the military guardians who accompany her, will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos, New Mexico, she learns why: he's working on a top secret government program. Over the next few years, Dewey gets to know eminent sc
...more
Get A Copy
Hardcover, 324 pages
Published
October 19th 2006
by Viking Books
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
The Green Glass Sea,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of The Green Glass Sea (Green Glass, #1)

Oct 15, 2007
Lisa Vegan
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
highly to anyone who enjoys novels, to all 9 & up including adults
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 character Dewey. In real life I would have ...more
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 character Dewey. In real life I would have ...more

This book, it strikes me, is everything wrong with children's literature. As an adult book it would be a four-star book, but as a children's book it's a 2-star book.
OPINION-FILLED REVIEW BELOW:
Summary: two awkward girls meet at the army base in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and eventually become friends.
That's the whole plot, right there. ^^ The characters are good, but children who are reading stories aren't really in it for the lush landscape descriptions or the deep introspections o ...more
OPINION-FILLED REVIEW BELOW:
Summary: two awkward girls meet at the army base in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and eventually become friends.
That's the whole plot, right there. ^^ The characters are good, but children who are reading stories aren't really in it for the lush landscape descriptions or the deep introspections o ...more

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 package of Koolaid as ...more
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 package of Koolaid as ...more

Apr 04, 2011
Rebecca
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
age-juvenile-fiction,
age-middle-school
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 really what we want ...more
"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 really what we want ...more

Dec 13, 2008
Luann
rated it
it was amazing
Recommended to Luann by:
Lisa Vegan
Shelves:
odell-award,
2009,
ms-rec,
orphans,
american-history,
war,
shelf-a-thon1,
historical-fiction,
young-adult
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 it into the story. The
...more

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 events didn't sit well with me a ...more
*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 events didn't sit well with me a ...more

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

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

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 lives with her ...more
At the new base where she lives with her ...more

I think we have a winner for my rarely given, 5-stars of love rating!
What a great book! What a great book for girls! I read this aloud to my daughter, and we both greatly enjoyed the story of Dewey, a science loving girl, who goes to live with her father, who is working on a government project for the war in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a place that doesn't officially exist.
The mystery and the secrecy that was Los Alamos, The Manhattan Project, "the gadget", and the Trinity test is brought to life t ...more
What a great book! What a great book for girls! I read this aloud to my daughter, and we both greatly enjoyed the story of Dewey, a science loving girl, who goes to live with her father, who is working on a government project for the war in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a place that doesn't officially exist.
The mystery and the secrecy that was Los Alamos, The Manhattan Project, "the gadget", and the Trinity test is brought to life t ...more
![laurel [the suspected bibliophile]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1546974316p2/7494844.jpg)
3.5 stars
1944. After her Nana has a stroke, Dewey finds herself traveling across the country to New Mexico to meet her father at his mysterious research facility. There, she meets mean Suze, who bullies her in order to look cool to the other girls. Things heat up when Dewey's father has to go to Washington, DC, for a while and Dewey is forced to stay with Suze. Can these two enemies set aside their differences?
I wanted to like this book a whole lot more than I did. I think it's because I'd alrea ...more
1944. After her Nana has a stroke, Dewey finds herself traveling across the country to New Mexico to meet her father at his mysterious research facility. There, she meets mean Suze, who bullies her in order to look cool to the other girls. Things heat up when Dewey's father has to go to Washington, DC, for a while and Dewey is forced to stay with Suze. Can these two enemies set aside their differences?
I wanted to like this book a whole lot more than I did. I think it's because I'd alrea ...more

Ellen Klages' YA historical novel Green Glass Sea is a wonderful read. Set during World War II, it is the story of ten-year-old Dewey Kerrigan, whose mathematician father has been recruited to work on the top-secret program to develop a nuclear bomb.
Dewey's mother left the family when Dewy was a baby, and she has grown up being shuffled between her father and her maternal grandmother - but now that her father is settled for the time bring in Los Alamos and her grandmother has been incapacitated ...more
Dewey's mother left the family when Dewy was a baby, and she has grown up being shuffled between her father and her maternal grandmother - but now that her father is settled for the time bring in Los Alamos and her grandmother has been incapacitated ...more

OMGNS THIS BOOK YALL
*waves frantically in the air and shoves in everyone's faces*
Never mind that it was a school book--it's now on my favorites shelf. Why?
Well...
It's historical fiction, WHICH IS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST
Then, it's WWII, which I'm a sucker for...
And then, it's sciency, which makes everything the besttttt
AND THEN, it's friendship and girls and people and wwii and EVERYTHING
And that ending was soooooo well planned and play omgns
And then the kicker.
It. Made. Me. Cry.
*mic drop*
AND GOODREAD ...more
*waves frantically in the air and shoves in everyone's faces*
Never mind that it was a school book--it's now on my favorites shelf. Why?
Well...
It's historical fiction, WHICH IS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST
Then, it's WWII, which I'm a sucker for...
And then, it's sciency, which makes everything the besttttt
AND THEN, it's friendship and girls and people and wwii and EVERYTHING
And that ending was soooooo well planned and play omgns
And then the kicker.
It. Made. Me. Cry.
*mic drop*
AND GOODREAD ...more

In 1943, 11-year-old Dewey is on her way to spend some time with her mathematician father after her grandmother suffers a stroke and can no longer take care of her. Her father has been absent since the beginning of the War and now lives at Los Alamos, working on a secret project which is only referred to as “the gadget” throughout the book. The Gadget is of course, the atomic bomb and Los Alamos is the secret location of the Manhattan Project.
There, Dewey is left mostly to her own devices – quit ...more
There, Dewey is left mostly to her own devices – quit ...more

Yet another recorded in my reading journal but never added to Goodreads. 3 stars since I can't remember.
...more

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

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, and fascinated by ...more
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, and fascinated by ...more

There were things I liked about this book. The day-in-the-life narrative of children in Los Alamos was interesting historically. The characters, while pretty one dimensional, were endearing. I almost could have given it one more star, but because it was kind of simplistic (both the cliched characters and plot) it made me wonder how well researched this was, or if this was just what the author imagined it would be. Also, I really disliked the ending, the spoiler is really mild (I'm sure you know
...more

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 being privy to information, the relation ...more
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 being privy to information, the relation ...more

An educational read for me in the form of a simple adolescent story. I've read on multiple occasions about how Hitler rounded up brilliant and elite German minds to work under his reign, but was ignorant to the American civilian scientists who were brought together to work in this secret community on The Manhattan Project. I had never before read about the making of the atomic bomb, Los Alamos, or Trinity and the Green Glass Sea. This little book strongly supports the author's statement that his
...more

Standing in the gift store of the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History - a fun and geeky store in a terrific small museum (in Albuquerque) - I asked an employee (who obviously loved working in the store) for a book recommendation. This is what I bought as a result (intending it as a two-fer, hoping that one or both of my sons might allso read it), and it was a pleasant surprise. On one level, this is a comfortable, easily accessible fictional historical snapshot - through the eyes of t
...more

I feel like this is a book that teachers in middle school make you read when you are learning about the home front in ww2 in America. It wasn’t bad, but I never felt truly connected to any of the characters, the closest I got was the mom.
Also what was up with all of the “we arent like other girls!” stuff?? It was such a big theme in the second half of the book. I understand that this book was trying to inspire young girls to get involved with arts and science, but shitting on other girls becaus ...more
Also what was up with all of the “we arent like other girls!” stuff?? It was such a big theme in the second half of the book. I understand that this book was trying to inspire young girls to get involved with arts and science, but shitting on other girls becaus ...more

A wonderful kid's-eye-view of the history-changing events at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as a cloistered community of scientists, mathematicians, and their families live together and work toward the goal of creating the first atomic bomb. As you can imagine, we only see things peripherally as the project was secret, especially for the children, but real historical figures make their appearances. I won't spoil who they are.
...more

It's November 1943, and budding inventor Dewey Kerrigan is on her way to New Mexico to live with her father. When she arrives, she finds that she'll be living in Los Alamos, where her father is involved with a secret project which has something to do with the war. I liked this a lot: the writing is lucid, and the depiction of the time and place is absorbing and convincing.
...more

This book was more like 4.5 stars, but still really good! The story line was very intriguing, keeping my interest through the whole book. The topic of the book was something that we had never really learned about in any social studies class, and I found it to be very interesting. Overall, I think that this was a very good book, and one that many people could easily enjoy.

This was a pretty good historical fiction book. I don't know if I'm going to read the second book because this one ended on a very good note. All of the characters continued to develop throughout the story which was good. At times it was slow so rafts why it has a four and not a five out of five stars. Overall easy read!
...more

3.5 stars
Very interesting idea for a story, focusing on two girls who (gradually) become friends in Los Alamos while their parents work on the first atomic bomb during WW2. Many of the scenes were somewhat slow and detailed, but clearly a lot of research went into this.
Very interesting idea for a story, focusing on two girls who (gradually) become friends in Los Alamos while their parents work on the first atomic bomb during WW2. Many of the scenes were somewhat slow and detailed, but clearly a lot of research went into this.

I am a huge fan of Historical Fiction and I can easily justify my binge reading because I am also learning history, even though sometimes authors spend less time on the history part and more time on the fiction part in some books. Thankfully, the author of The Green Glass Sea did her research. The fiction element of the story I did not enjoy as much only because the story of Dewey - the main character- is so sad and I am a sucker for happy endings, however, there is rarely a happy ending when wa ...more

I heard about this book when I visited the Nuclear Science Museum in Albuquerque, NM. I also visited Los Alamos, although at the time had not read this book. Since then, I have also read Atomic Farmgirl (a memoir) and even visited the setting of the book, Hanford, Washington. Both of these books are about young girls who grew up immersed around nuclear science during WW2. I REALLY enjoy reading about this era and topic. I hope this is just one of many similar books I will try and find.
I really ...more
I really ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Joe Flesher Review 7 | 1 | 2 | Nov 21, 2018 11:17PM | |
Around the Year i...: The Green Glass Sea, by Ellen Klages | 1 | 14 | Jan 08, 2017 04:18PM | |
the Green glass sea | 1 | 3 | Dec 05, 2016 03:03PM |
Ellen Klages was born in Ohio, and now lives in San Francisco.
Her short fiction has appeared in science fiction and fantasy anthologies and magazines, both online and in print, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Black Gate, and Firebirds Rising. Her story, "Basement Magic," won the Best Novelette Nebula Award in 2005. Several of her other stories have been on the final ballot f ...more
Her short fiction has appeared in science fiction and fantasy anthologies and magazines, both online and in print, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Black Gate, and Firebirds Rising. Her story, "Basement Magic," won the Best Novelette Nebula Award in 2005. Several of her other stories have been on the final ballot f ...more
Other books in the series
The Gordon Family Saga
(3 books)
News & Interviews
Twists, turns, red herrings, the usual suspects: These books have it all...and more. If you love mysteries and thrillers, get ready for dozens...
136 likes · 32 comments
2 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“Music is the hidden arithmetic of the soul, which does not know that it deals with numbers. (Paraphrasing Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz)”
—
11 likes
More quotes…