BIBLIOGRAPHY: Klages, Ellen. 2006. Green Glass Sea. New York, NY: Viking Juvenile. ISBN 9780670061341
PLOT SUMMARY: Eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan comes to live with her father at a secluded community in New Mexico.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Klages's setting of Green Grass Sea will appear to the young reader because it is secluded and a secret place, even the soldier escorting Dewey can not tell her. Moving to live with her father on "The Hill" is challenging for Dewey but is it realistic to tweens and teens. Even though she is with her father, he always working and doesn't spend time with her. Even when she befriends other adults- she's always alone. This may appeal to a teens because of their own feeling abandonment, isolation, "no one understands me", "play attention to me" feelings. Dewey often times visits the dump to collect old parts for her "inventions"- again, all alone. Dewey had been in the care of her grandmother when her mother is not in her life; the grandmother suffers a stroke, then Dewey is sent to live with her father, who in turns dies. Once again, the feeling a abandonment is noticed. Authenticity of teen-age life is also experienced by Dewey. She is bullied and made fun of because of her love of math, science and her mechanical knowledge. She is called names and must confront the meanest bully of all, when she goes to live with Suze, who is also ridicule and bullied herself. but just like teenagers, Dewey labels the people around her, the physicists are "fizzlers" and the chemists are "stinkers". In the end, Dewey has a new family and has witness the testing of the first atomic bomb
AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPT:
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature
New Mexico State Book Award (YA)
From Booklist
The novel occasionally gets mired down in detail, but the characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes. John Green
From School Library Journal
Many readers will know as little about the true nature of the project as the girls do, so the gradual revelation of facts is especially effective, while those who already know about Los Alamos's historical significance will experience the story in a different, but equally powerful, way.–Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR
CONNECTIONS: Themes that can be associated and connected in a classroom are father/daughter relationships, friendships, scientist, atom bomb race, WWII, death and abandonment. Historical people/events and locations mentioned: Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos and atomic/nuclear bomb testing.
PLOT SUMMARY: Eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan comes to live with her father at a secluded community in New Mexico.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Klages's setting of Green Grass Sea will appear to the young reader because it is secluded and a secret place, even the soldier escorting Dewey can not tell her. Moving to live with her father on "The Hill" is challenging for Dewey but is it realistic to tweens and teens. Even though she is with her father, he always working and doesn't spend time with her. Even when she befriends other adults- she's always alone. This may appeal to a teens because of their own feeling abandonment, isolation, "no one understands me", "play attention to me" feelings. Dewey often times visits the dump to collect old parts for her "inventions"- again, all alone. Dewey had been in the care of her grandmother when her mother is not in her life; the grandmother suffers a stroke, then Dewey is sent to live with her father, who in turns dies. Once again, the feeling a abandonment is noticed. Authenticity of teen-age life is also experienced by Dewey. She is bullied and made fun of because of her love of math, science and her mechanical knowledge. She is called names and must confront the meanest bully of all, when she goes to live with Suze, who is also ridicule and bullied herself. but just like teenagers, Dewey labels the people around her, the physicists are "fizzlers" and the chemists are "stinkers". In the end, Dewey has a new family and has witness the testing of the first atomic bomb
AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPT:
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature
New Mexico State Book Award (YA)
From Booklist
The novel occasionally gets mired down in detail, but the characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes. John Green
From School Library Journal
Many readers will know as little about the true nature of the project as the girls do, so the gradual revelation of facts is especially effective, while those who already know about Los Alamos's historical significance will experience the story in a different, but equally powerful, way.–Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR
CONNECTIONS: Themes that can be associated and connected in a classroom are father/daughter relationships, friendships, scientist, atom bomb race, WWII, death and abandonment. Historical people/events and locations mentioned: Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos and atomic/nuclear bomb testing.
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