Book Review of Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sheinkin, Steve. 2012. BOMB: THE RACE TO BUILD – AND STEAL – THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., by arrangement with Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership. ISBN 9780545595971.


PLOT SUMMARY

During World War II, the United States, Germany, and the U.S.S.R. all wanted to be first to develop a working atomic bomb. This is the story of the race to get the bomb, and the men and women who played important parts.  

 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Author Steve Sheinkin does a splendid job of telling history in a compelling way that combines hard facts with the emotions running rampant through the world during World War II. Sheinkin’s organization and documentation are outstanding. He offers a wide range of points of view, from American to Russian to German to British, from scientist to soldier to politician to layman. He takes one the most complicated and difficult to understand subjects in the world – nuclear physics – and makes it accessible to not just adult readers, but successfully adapts the comprehension level to high school age readers. Sheinkin weaves three separate storylines – the U.S. building the bomb; the U.S. preventing the Germans from building theirs’; and the U.S. trying to keep the U.S.S.R. from stealing their bomb plans – into a coherent whole narrative. The author does not stereotype the men and women he depicts in this book. He shows them as fully developed humans. We see the flaws of the “heroes” and we are shown how the “villains” believe in what they do. There are no easy black and white answers in this story. Anyone who wants the red, white, and blue stars and stripes patriotic version of history needs to go look elsewhere. Sheinkin recounts this history with all its ugliness intact. Thankfully, he also shows the bravery, resourcefulness, and tenacity of the men and women who worked together to end World War II. His text combined with the supportive features (epilogue, index, acknowledgments, quotation notes, and primary source material of photographs and Albert Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt) add up to an outstanding informational book about a pivotal time in American and world history.       

        

AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS                                              

2013 Newbery Honor Book

2013 Sibert Medal

2013 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL review: “… this award-winning, meticulously sourced book deserves a spot in every library.”

KIRKUS review: “It takes a lot of work to make a complicated subject clear and exciting, and from his prodigious research and storytelling skill, Sheinkin has created a nonfiction story young people will want to read.”

 
CONNECTIONS

* Topics related to this include World War II, science, atomic weapons, and the future of our world.  

* If you like Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, you may also enjoy the following books:

Montillo, Roseanne. 2020. ATOMIC WOMEN: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SCIENTISTS WHO HELPED CREATE THE NUCLEAR BOMB. ISBN 9780316489584.

Kelly, Cynthia. 2020. THE MANHATTAN PROJECT: THE BIRTH OF THE ATOMIC BOMB IN THE WORDS OF ITS CREATORS, EYEWITNESSES, AND HISTORIANS. ISBN 9780762471263.

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