Bomb: The Race to Build—And Steal—The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

Grade Level:  Grade 5 and up

Age Range:  10-14 Years

Lexile:  720L

Publisher:  Flashpoint, 2012

Only having fundamental knowledge of the role of scientists, the Manhattan project, and the history of the atomic bomb; Sheinkin’s award-winning book was eye-opening.  Bomb was a Newberry Honor book, National Book Awards – Finalist, winner of the Robert F. Silbert Award and the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.  For a complete list of awards, check out Sheinkin’s website:  http://stevesheinkin.com/books/bomb/

Bomb is engaging, informative, and most of all, interesting and hard to put down.  There are so many side-plots and characters taking us around the world and into the lives of spies, physicists, military and political leaders, while making them all real and accessible.  It is written in short snapshots (in addition, wonderful pictures are included in the book) that each give us a glimpse of the big picture.  We learn how the race to create the atomic bomb is happening all over the world during WWII and see how this changed the course of history.

The book opens up with spy Harry Gold telling his story to the FBI in 1950, years after the war is over.  Next, a portrait is painted of physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who headed the research at Los Alamos and the whole project.  We learn the role Einstein and Roosevelt and Truman played.  In addition, Sheinkin, tells the story of happenings in Russia, Germany, England, and Norway, and how efforts were made to thwart German physicists from being able to create an atomic bomb.  Sheinkin does a wonderful job of describing how things happened, why they happened the way they did, and describing people’s state of mind and feelings through researched information. He also explains the science of the atomic bomb in easy to understand, simple terms.

Sheinkin portrays the mixed emotions the scientists feel as a result of their successful creation of the atomic bomb.  They ended the war but caused great suffering and changed the safety and security of human beings forever.  He also includes eye-witness accounts from Japanese survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the pilots who dropped the bomb.  Further, he discusses the Cold War and the state of nuclear weapons in the world today. 

Although this book has been publicly criticized for too much fictionalization of the story, I do not see any issues with the type of fictionalization that has occurred.  In general, it seems that Sheinkin has taken documented characteristics of the people involved and used them to create some scenarios that are probable.  I do not believe this takes away from the nonfiction element of the story.

This book would be very interesting to middle school students interested in history, the military, and science.  The fast pace and engaging storyline will keep most young adults reading.  I think it would work well in a middle school history course, especially paired with a personal story of a soldier such as the Young Adult Adaption of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  It would be interesting to give students the option of reading either of the books and having class discussions about topics.

I highly recommend this book.  It is engaging, interesting, and educational.