Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

If anyone had told me that I would spend five hours on a Tuesday, glued to a book about the making and detonating of the first atomic bombs, I would have told them they were crazy.  But, that’s exactly what I did. Prior to reading this one, I truly wondered how a book about the bomb could have garnered so many awards.  Now I know.

Sheinkin opens in May, 1950, with FBI agents approaching the house of Harry Gold, to arrest him for espionage.  More specifically, providing the Soviets with secrets to create their own atomic bomb based directly off US plans in Los Alamos in the 40’s.

What ensues is a flashback of events, beginning with Robert Oppenheimer’s background and notoriety as an absent-minded, yet brilliant professor at Berkeley and how he came to be a physicist.  As the layers of narrative nonfiction unfold, Sheinkin introduces an entire cast of characters, which clearly took an immense amount of research, from the idea generators right down to the spies and the original Germans who began the work. The sheer volume of names given and stories being told is astounding. Divided into three distinct sections, the book covers everything from the seeds of the idea of splitting atoms to the actual destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. 

What may most appeal to teens, however, is the espionage and detail of the Soviet spies paralleled with the narrative exactly.  It’s mind boggling how many Americans were actually willing to give up weapons secrets in this era, especially those who were working on the project in Los Alamos!  Hindsight being 20/20, it’s hard for adults who know about the atomic bomb, the Enola Gay, testing fallout, the arms race and the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; to read this and not cringe, knowing what will come next.  However, our current teens didn’t live through this era like some of us did.  How many of you cowered, as I did, even in the late 70’s, worrying that the Soviet Union could just bust out some bombs and destroy our lives as we knew them? 

The information presented in this book isn’t just accessible and, dare I say “addictive”, but essential knowledge for students to have.  I could go on for an entire hour just about this book, but I will close with a quote from Robert Oppenheimer on October 16, 1945, as he was given a scroll from the US Government thanking him for his work:  “It is our hope that in years to come we may look at this scroll, and all that it signifies, with pride.  Today that pride must be tempered with a profound concern.  If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima.  The peoples of this world must unite or they will perish.”  Please, put this book in the hands of students as soon as possible.