The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

1.   BIBLIOGRAPHY

Klages, Ellen.  2006.  THE GREEN GLASS SEA.  New York:  Viking.  ISBN  0670061344

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

After her grandmother suffers a stroke, ten-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is sent to New Mexico to live with her father, who has been working on a government secret project the last few months.  For the next few years, Dewey finds herself in the company of world-class scientists, chemists, physicists, and mathematicians, all of whom are working on "the gadget" at the army's secret location, known only as "The Hill."  After a tragic accident, Dewey is left in the care of her classmate Suze Gordon's family.  As the two forge an unlikely friendship, they enjoy the fun and excitement of discovering new things, but also endure tremendous loss and pain.  When "the gadget" is finally completed, both girls begin to question what the future holds in a world where the atomic bomb now exists.

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Klages brings the story of the Manhatten Project to life through two memorable and well-developed  characters - Dewey Kerrigan and Suze Gordon.  Dewey is a shy, quiet ten-year old girl who loves science and engineering.  Because she is the new kid in school, she is often shunned by the other kids, and instead enjoys studying the workings of radios and clocks as well as building action figures made of odd mechanical parts.  Suze, on the other hand, is a tough, independent tomboy who longs to be liked by the popular crowd at school.  In her attempts to try and impress the popular girls, she  sneaks past military patrol officers,  climbs over a sharp steel fence, and nearly kills herself in the process.  Young readers will be able to identify with both characters because they can relate to the feelings and hardships they endure.  Some readers can relate to Dewey because they may know how it feels to be shy around new people or uncomfortable in new surroundings.  Young readers will also be able to identify with Suze because they know the importance of feeling loved and being accepted by others.  By bringing out their vulnerable qualities, Klages  provides a very intimate portrayal of the main characters' lives, and makes it easier for readers to connect and empathize with these two special individuals.

Klages also keeps her characters grounded in the 1940s and World War II era  by dating the clothes and activities the children engage in.  For example, a boy in Dewey's neighborhood is described as "wearing dungarees that ended two inches above his black high-tops," "wore cutoffs ragged at the knees," and wore "t-shirts that had started off white."  As the children play, they speak of the real people and historical events occurring during their time period.  Young girls jumping rope chant "V is for Victory, dot, dot, dash! /Hitler lost his little mustache!/ If you find it, let him know,/And he'll give you a bag of dough!"  while others dance to the "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" that plays over the radio.  Mention of these activities not only place the story in an accurate, historical time frame, but also allows today's readers to relate to the same types of activities they engage in, making the events and characters believable.

The plot is character based and is driven through their interactions and dialogue.  Klages incorporates alternating points of view on the parts of both Dewey and Suze so that intricate details about the characters are brought to light.  For example, through Suze's perspective, readers learn that Dewey is handicapped and walks with a limp.  Through Dewey's perspective, readers learn that many of the neighborhood kids have taken to calling Suze "Truck" behind her back because of her thickset stature and bossy persona.  Readers would have missed out on these tiny, yet important details had it now been for Klages' use of different points-of-view.  As the story unfolds and the characters go about their daily activities, readers learn how people reacted to newsworthy, historical events, such as Truman's announcement of the Germans' surrender, and the death of the beloved President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  After the President's death, Dewey describes the scene: "Women sat on the stoops of the apartment buildings, talking softly, hugging each other, weeping...The sight of an army MP with a rifle in his hands and tears in his eyes was both unsettling and reassuring."  These details personalize the story and accurately capture the emotions experienced by those who lived during the World War II era.   

Although the atomic bomb being  built is always described as "the gadget," readers experience firsthand the bomb's initial testing as well as witness the devastating impact it had on the land.  Through Dewey's description, readers learn "there was a bright light, as bright as the sun...she heard-and felt- a long, low rumble, like distant, alien thunder...The gadget worked."  Later on, after Suze's father takes the family to visit the bomb's test site, Dewey sees "burned spots that looked like little animals, like a bird or a desert mouse had been stenciled black against the hard, flat ground."  This grim description conveys the bomb's destruction on animal life and lets readers infer the kind of impact it will have on human lives.  Although it is not pleasant, it does present the reality of the  bomb's capable destruction to young readers.  Klagues alludes to the what "the gadget" actually is through the comments shared between scientists: "So much for Japan. It'll only take one" and "Cloud looked like a glowing mushroom, eight miles high."  The emotional impact it has on the scientists and researchers is seen as on their faces, "awesome and solemn, as if they had looked into another world."  This adds a powerful human element for those involved in the Manhattan Project.

THE GREEN GLASS SEA takes place in the secretive government area of Los Alamos, New Mexico.  Dewey's description of the scenery paints a clear portrait of the desert atmosphere.  As she travels to her new home, the mountains "look like a layer cake that some giant has cut cleanly with a knife.  Sheer vertical cliffs are striped in horizontal bands of color, layer after layer of crumbly-looking rock, red and pink and brown."  The "warm pinion scented air" filters through the town's "low, beige buildings, shrubs, and cactuses, and narrow, cobblestoned streets."  This vivid description paints a picture of what life was like for those involved in the Manhattan Project.  Mention of quick shopping trips to cities like Santa Fe and Albuquerque also remind readers of the story's desert setting.  To help readers keep track of time, Klages includes specific dates and years at the beginning of several chapters.  This not only helps readers follow the story's timeline, but accurately places the events in the proper time period.

The timeless theme of the importance of family is interwoven throughout the story's plot.  Readers see the value Dewey places in spending quality time with her busy father as they talk quietly in a cave about what life will be like after "the gadget's" completion.  Suze enjoys eating sandwiches and drinking cokes with her  mother, a project chemist, over a fun game of gin.  Also, the importance of 
 helping out others in their time of need is brought to light after Dewey's father passes away in a terrible accident.  The Gordon family volunteers to take care of orphaned Dewey to ensure that she live a stable and happy life.  The need for human love and connection is found in the friendship Dewey and Suze forge despite their contrasting personalities.  
       

The "Author's Note" includes a list of books and movies readers may want to use to learn more about the Manhattan Project.  Although Klages does not cite where she retrieved the historical information  used throughout the book, she does thank the librarians and curators of the Los Alamos Historical Museum, the New Mexico State Library, and the Tularosa Basin Historical Society in Alamogordo in the "Acknowledgment."

4.  REVIEWS

Winner, 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction


BOOKLIST: "The characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes."

     
THE HORN BOOK: "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....the story, an intense but accessible page-turner, firmly belongs to the girls and their families; history and story are drawn together with confidence."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Clear prose brings readers right into the unusual atmosphere of the secretive scientific community, seen through the eyes of the kids and their families. Dewey is an especially engaging character, plunging on with her mechanical projects and ignoring any questions about gender roles. Occasional shifts into first person highlight the protagonist's most emotional moments."

5.  CONNECTIONS

-While away on a trip, Dewey's father writes her a letter in code language to reveal his whereabouts and activities.  Have students write a letter to another classmate written in a code similar to the one Mr. Kerrigan used in his letter to Dewey. 

-Have students continue the story of Dewey and Suze by reading Klages' sequel to the novel:
Klages, Ellen.  WHITE SANDS, RED MENACE.  ISBN  0142415189

-Include other historical novels that incorporate the atomic bomb:

Lawton, Clive.  HIROSHIMA: THE STORY OF THE FIRST ATOM BOMB.  ISBN  0763622710 

Yep, Laurence. HIROSHIMA. ISBN 0590208330