Complex, engaging tale of tweens in the shadow of the bomb.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
some
"The gadget" on which most of the adults in the story are working are the nuclear bombs that eventually obliterate two cities in Japan, and kill, maim, and sicken hundreds of thousands of people, puts the world forever under the threat of nuclear annihilation -- but ends the war. The reader knows more about all this than the characters, who are by turns thrilled, horrified, and/or deeply conflicted as they learn more. A beloved adult character is killed, leaving his child an orphan. Oppressive atmosphere of guards, barbed wire, off-limits areas, and secrecy, with actual danger involved, as a kid character takes a shortcut while dodging gun-toting military police. Mean behavior and bullying at school and beyond. Lots of racist wartime slogans like "WIPE THE JAP OFF THE MAP!"
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Many uses of the racial slur "Jap." Crude wartime rhymes about Nazis, including one about their balls. "Fubar," "goddamn,""Bitch" (from a boy who apologizes for swearing), "Oh Christ!" "Holy Joe!"
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.
It's the '40s, so adults drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes as part of everyday life. An adult character admits he got drunk the night before and is now hung over because he wanted to forget about the war for a while. In the past, a drunken character's carelessness seriously injures her baby.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
Strong messages of friendship, family, looking out for one another especially in terrible times -- and, on another level, learning to question everything. Unabashed support and acceptance of being really smart, and getting on with your work with those you connect with while ignoring those who mock you and call you names.
Educational Value
some
Lots of historical detail about daily life during World War II, including censorship, train travel, time of day in Mountain War Time, listenening to the radio, etc. Also, since most of the adult characters were professors in their pre-war lives, the conversation is steeped in academic learning -- and the assumption that all the participants are able to understand and appreciate what's being said, as when Dewey's dad quotes Leibniz, "Music is the hidden arithmetic of the soul, which does not know that it deals with numbers. Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting," and Dewey, age 11, responds, "Can I borrow that book when you're done?" Visits to the surrounding countryside in New Mexico, including Anasazi village sites. A character teaches another the Greek alphabet. Codes, ciphers, puzzles and problem solving are just part of life.
Positive Role Models
some
Ten years old as the story opens and traveling across country by herself, Dewey is scared, but also tough, brilliant, and resourceful. She's mocked for her appearance and lack of social skills pretty much from birth, but she's learned to ignore it and get on with what she's really interested in, like building radios, which wins her friends with like-minded boys. Dewey's single-parent dad, a math professor at Harvard before the war, has always (correctly) treated her as an equally smart person who's likely to be fascinated by whatever he's fascinated by, and is eager to pass it on. Richard Feynman, a real person, encourages her. Meanwhile Suze is a budding artist dealing with mean girls at school; her mom is strong, supportive, kind, and also doesn't let her turn into a mean girl. Suze's dad is a brilliant scientist caught up in the grand adventure of world-changing accomplishment, while other adults are more conflicted or outright horrified by what they're doing to win the war.
Diverse Representations
a little
It's the '40s and wartime. Lots of racist anti-Japanese slogans, rhymes, and jingles are part of pop culture and daily life. Most primary characters are White and smart, with women as well as men doing important work as scientists and mathematicians. Many characters, including the Gordons, are Jewish, but not religious. Non-White characters make brief appearances important to the story: the Sandoval family are kindly neighbors, a Black Pullman porter looks out for 10-year-old Dewey traveling solo, and Suze is trying to pick up words and phrases from Spanish-speaking housecleaning ladies. Dewey reads The Boy Mechanic because, she says, "They didn't make one for girls."
Parents need to know that Ellen Klages's The Green Glass Sea, which received the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2007, is the first book in a trilogy about the Gordon family, Berkeley academics who we first meet here as they become part of the Manhattan Project. 10-year-old Dewey Kerrigan moves to Los Alamos where her Harvard professor father is working on top-secret stuff. Dewey develops an uneasy friendship with Suze, as they are both targeted by the "mean girls" at school. The backdrop to all this is the war, the atom bomb, the scientists' glee when "the gadget" works, and dawning horror at what it actually does. There's more scariness and threat of violence than actual violence: life on a military base includes military guards with guns patrolling, barbed wire, off-limits areas, etc., a beloved character dies, leaving their child orphaned, and there's mean and bullying behavior at school. Language includes many uses of the racial slur "Jap," crude wartime rhymes about Nazis, "fubar," "goddamn," and "bitch." Adults smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, sometimes to excess.
There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.
What's the Story?
THE GREEN GLASS SEA finds 10-year-old Dewey Kerrigan on a solo train trip in 1943, to join her math professor father at a top-secret location, where he's working on something nobody can talk about. She's most concerned about getting her homemade radio to work on the train, and gets some help from a bright young guy who treats her like an equally bright person, who turns out to be Richard Feynman. Reunited with her genius dad, she forms an uneasy friendship with Suze Gordon, who loves art the way Dewey loves technology. Like Dewey's dad, Feynman, Robert Oppenheimer, and many others, the elder Gordons are involved in a race to create "the gadget" they hope will end the war. Which is very, very secret, and guards, barbed-wire fences, and strangers censoring your mail are all just part of daily life.
Two brilliant misfit tweens whose parents can't talk about their work find friendship in this award-winning, historically accurate story of everyday life at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. The Green Glass Sea offers a relatable tale of mean girls and how to get past them as nerdy Dewey and artist Suze find they've got a lot in common and work through their differences. With these familiar themes set against the author's and our knowledge of what actually happened with "the gadget" their parents were working on, and how it changed things forever, the tension is always high. There's a lot here that's historically authentic (like cameos from Richard Feynman and Robert Oppenheimer) but also jarring to 21st-century readers, from wartime hate speech against "Japs" and crude jingles about Hitler's balls to the fact that a family goes on an overnight campout to watch the test of the first atomic bomb. It's an irresistible read that requires the maturity to deal with contradictory ideas -- and offers plenty to think and talk about.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the atomic bomb, how it changed the world, and why we tell stories, like The Green Glass Sea, about it. How has its legacy affected your life today? How did it affect your loved ones in the past?
Have you ever had to make a long-distance journey by yourself? What happened and how did you deal with it? Was it fun, scary, or maybe both? Did it take courage for you to go it alone? Where did you find that courage?
Do you know any adults who talk to you like you're an adult, like them, and not a kid? How does that make you feel?
How do Dewey and Suze grow closer? Does empathy play a role? How so?
Available on:
Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), iBooks, Kindle
Last updated:
September 13, 2023
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
The Green Glass Sea: The Gordon Family Saga, Book 1
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
