Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon in Mock Newbery 2026

Oct 24, 2012 Kristine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, ww2-holocaust, non-fic, childrens-chapter, mock-newbery

Move over, John Grisham (? or Robert Ludlum?), this is a compelling spy story at it's finest. The best part? It's all true!

I'm flabbergasted by the sheer amount of work and research it took for Sheinkin to weave the tales of the US racing to build an atom bomb, the Soviets' attempt to steal it, and the efforts to destroy Germany's bomb program, and do it in such a way that it reads like such a compelling narrative I feel as if I'm there. I read an interview where he described the process of recr Move over, John Grisham (? or Robert Ludlum?), this is a compelling spy story at it's finest. The best part? It's all true!

I'm flabbergasted by the sheer amount of work and research it took for Sheinkin to weave the tales of the US racing to build an atom bomb, the Soviets' attempt to steal it, and the efforts to destroy Germany's bomb program, and do it in such a way that it reads like such a compelling narrative I feel as if I'm there. I read an interview where he described the process of recreating a scene, one that others had maligned the details as impossible to know. I believe it was the scene with FDR and Churchill getting picked up at the airport and people were saying he was making up that someone was glistening with sweat or one was smoking a cigar and what they talked about in the car. Sheinkin described how he recreated just that one scene from about a dozen primary and secondary sources that sited the sweat, cigars, and exactly what was said. Amazing.

Another thing that occurred to me is that so much of the spywork and clandestine operations that stole the plan hinged a lot on seeming amateurs. My hope is that technology means the wool can't be pulled over our eyes quite as easily. Also surprising, the prevalence of communists and how easily US citizens passed things to the Soviets without batting an eye. A little peek into the precursor of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. People really were scared their neighbors were enemies - because this story shows how many average joes were.

One of my elementary classmate's grandpa (I know what a connection) was Bob Caron, the photographer on the Enola Gay and took the famous photograph of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud. I remember him coming to our school to speak. Ahhh-mazing. Cool to see these different stories match up to make a more complete picture. Especially after reading Unbroken last year.

I love reading NF US history books - there is so much I don't know about our own country and our past. I wish I had read this before I drove through all these same towns in New Mexico and known the significance they have in our world's history.

A+++

(I now feel I must read all of Sheinkin's work, what other awesome things have I been missing?) ...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Monica Edinger rated it it was amazing

Excellent. The research, the writing, the plotting, the settings --- this book has it all. I am in awe of how Sheinkin managed to do the work (his sourcing looks to be impeccable), sift down to the material he ended up using, keep the multiple narrative threads going effectively, fantastic character development and write with such incredible verve. As others have pointed out parts of this are better than any thriller, say the Norwegian actions. I know bits and pieces of the story, but Sheinkin h ...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: newbery-honor, wwii, sibert-winners-and-honors, 2012-award-possibilities

This book is probably the greatest disappointment of the year to me. Because up until page 227, it was a five star book. I was ready to proclaim it the book of the year, the clear Newbery choice, a must-read.

But the epilogue--it's bad.

It would probably be going too far to say that it's actually poorly written. In comparison to most of the books that I've read this year, it's probably still in the top half. But the contrast between the epilogue and the rest of the book is so stark--and it leaves ...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-elements, mg-chapter, bookaday, read-aloud-possibility, historical, newbery-possibilities, nonfiction, 2012-book, mock-newbery-2012

I first heard about this book over at Heavy Medal blog as they are narrowing down their mock Newbery list. I must not have been paying close attention this year because this book definitely was not on my reading radar. I really, really liked this book!!!! It frequently read like a spy novel, which is one of my favorite genres. Many names were familiar, but this really taught me a lot about the specific players in building the atomic bomb in a worldwide arena. The research and organization to put ...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012reads, bulletinblueribbon, kids, 2012-pub, youngadult, nonfiction, nationalbookhonor, history, newberyhonor, sibertwinner

Fascinating and particularly good timing for me as I've just read Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption and Code Name Verity. It makes me want to go back and reread The Green Glass Sea. However, I just do not seem to connect to non-fiction the same way I do with fiction. I loved reading about the science and the spy missions, but I had the hardest time convincing myself to pick this book back up each time I put it down. Excellent and I expect it has a good shot at ...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Dest rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, war, tween, teen

What makes this book so great? It reads WAY more like a novel than any other nonfiction book I can think of.

What makes this book disorienting? It reads WAY more like a novel than any other nonfiction book I can think of.

Here is the disorienting part: How could the author know for a fact so many of the little details that make this book read like a thriller? From gestures to facial expressions to the way a person was feeling, it's hard to believe that such minutia was ever documented. As an adu ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Kris Springer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013-newbery-reads

Super engaging nonfiction for children and teens. Riveting writing, paced like a fiction thriller. Tells the story of the race to build the atomic bomb, as well as the struggle to keep the Germans from building a bomb, and the tale of how Soviet spies stole it from under our noses. Sheinkin does an admirable job connecting all of these threads as well as developing several different characters in a nuanced way. This could have been a really boring textbooky book but instead kept me focused and c ...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Karen rated it really liked it

I had a hard time getting into this at first, but once it got going I was hooked. The building of the atomic bomb is a fascinating story that I didn't know much about. This book is well written and reads like fiction. ...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Tamsyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, nonfiction, fms, suspenseful, war-stories

Learned a lot from this book. Using three different, connected storylines, Sheinkin makes the players understandable and sympathetic, while allowing the reader to follow a complex, world-changing true story.

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Jan 31, 2013 Chrissy rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen, nonfiction, history

Informative of both the Manhattan project itself and the KGB efforts to steal it's secrets, this book is well done. I enjoyed the more personel descriptions of the scientists and spies involved instead of sticking to the facts.Oppenheimer and Hill especially seemed very interesting indeed. I learned so much and the interesting little factoids kept me moving right along. (Oppenheimer forgetting his date, the bomb plans in the tissue box, and Feynman played bongos...hey I knew that. That's why She ...more

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