THE GREEN GLASS SEA
By Ellen Klages
Scholastic, 2006
It seems we Burnses are the last people on Earth to read this book, so I probably don’t need to tell you that it is about two eleven-year-old girls living in the top-secret town of Los Alamos, New Mexico—nicknamed the Hill—at the end of World War II. Their parents are involved in an equally secret project, a gadget that will end the war. It is an intense time, but Dewey and Suze are regular girls, dealing with the not-so-secret issues of being young and just a little different.
We loved this book. It spoke to all of us: two ten-year-old boys, one seven-year-old girl, and one thirty-nine-year-old mom. The kids were swept up in the history and are very keen to read more about the Hill and the Manhattan Project. Their reaction to the gadget and the ramifications of its success surprised and worried me. My own reaction mirrored that of Mrs. Gordon, Suze’s mother: “Christ. What have we done?” (This surprised no one in this house.) The book gave us a platform to discuss difficult questions, though, and I am always down with that.
My favorite moment in this novel was a writing moment. Dewey was given the great honor of visiting the secret treehouse of Charlie and Jack, brothers also living on the Hill. The threesome trudged through the flat landsacape of the hill, kicking up dust in every shade of brown and army green, and eventually came to the treehouse:
Dewey climed up the ladder, not as fast as Jack, but without any hesitation. Charlie appeared a few seconds later, the knapsack on his back. He took it off and dropped it with a thump, raising a spray of dust motes that sparkled for a few seconds in the afternoon sun.
Did you catch it? The word sparkled? It was masterful. The landscape until this moment had been so drab that those sparkling dust motes took my breath away. They gave the treehouse a special place in the story, foreshadowed that magnificent green glass sea, and, at the same time, made me worry for Dewey: they sparkled for only a few seconds, after all. My hackles were raised. So many emotional reactions elicited by one perfectly chosen, perfectly placed word.
We’ve added the sequel, WHITE SANDS, RED MENACE to our summer reading list. At the moment it is in the number four spot, behind this, and this, and this. (Hey, don’t mention that last one to Mr. Burns, okay?)
Have a great weekend, friends!