WWRW: Bomb

Not like this week's book was so bad that it was a bomb. But that is the title. Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. By Steve Sheinkin. Winner or nominee of pretty much any award a book can get. Including the 2013 Newberry. In my book clubs "unofficial let's only pick WWII books" this is the new pick.

It is a book, which I am sure you can gather from the title, is about the process of creating the atomic bomb. The book is supposedly geared towards a YA audience though I am really starting to think that line has been blurred in the book world because it's about building bombs, and science and spies. I wouldn't say that the book is really intense, though SPOILER ALERT: the scientists succeed and the bombs are used against Japan. (I was being sarcastic about the spoiler alert, clearly.)

The story weaves all the elements of the bomb's creation. It simultaneously follows scientists in the US working on building the bomb, scientist solders in Norway trying to prevent Germany from building the bomb and the USSR using spies to steal information so they could also build the bomb.

Bomb gets down to the nitty gritty of the science and the secrecy behind everything. Although this is a non-fiction book about spies so let your conspiracy warning alarm go off in your head as you wonder how much more to the story there really is. The direct quotes from the Presidents (Roosevelt and Truman) as well as others taken directly from their writings make it at least as accurate as it can be.

Even though the book takes place during WWII almost entirely, it is much less about war than it is about science. As a good discussion point, the ethics of the bomb and how it changes the world are absolutely touched upon. (Also the punishment of spies is a good ethical talking point.) I think if you have a homeschooler in upper middle/high school this would be a good book for science, history and ethics curriculum. Even if you don't homeschool this book would be a good one for your older child. The last chunk of book is copies of primary sources so it really is an approachable book that is not over the heads of many.

It does make you wonder whether it was a good idea to go down this path at all and what else the government is working on secretly. I am certainly not the scientist they'd be recruiting so I'll probably never know. Bomb also reinforces my belief that I would MUCH rather perish in nuclear fallout than survive. From a purely internal ethics thought process I found the book to be deeply fascinating so I would recommend especially if you've got a budding physicist, philosopher or politician on your hands.

I am looking forward to my book club discussing this book and would really love to discuss it with any of you WWRW/blog readers as well.

Linking up with Jessica for WWRW because that's what I do.