Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Complex, engaging tale of tweens in the shadow of the bomb.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
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.
Is It Any Good?
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?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Historical Fiction
- Topics : STEM , Friendship , History
- Character Strengths : Courage , Empathy , Perseverance
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Puffin
- Publication date : October 19, 2016
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 368
- Available on : Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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