Klages, Ellen. 2007. THE GREEN GLASS SEA. Narrated by: Julie Dretzin. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books. ISBN 1428146393.

This review is of the unabridged audiobook production, playing time 7 hours and 30 minutes, comprising seven compact discs, packaged in a clamshell case from Recorded Books. The sole reader is Julie Dretzin, a female actress with experience on Broadway shows and in television, who has served as narrator for nearly thirty audiobook titles. The sound quality of the recording was excellent, without static or distracting background noise; no sound effects or musical soundtrack accompanied the reader. Ms. Dretzin employed variations in her voice to represent the speaking voices of the book’s different characters. She was quite effective, even on the male characters. She portrayed the persona of the main character, a bright eccentric preteen girl, in a very believable manner.

This first novel by Klages opens as a young girl, who prefers building inventions to playing with dolls, travels to meet her father at an undisclosed destination, known only as “The Hill”, where he is doing “war stuff.” We gradually learn that 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan has been raised mostly by others while her father pursued his career and for the first time in years she will be living with him. When Dewey arrives in Santa Fe, Army personnel meet her and it becomes clear she is headed for a highly secret place that few know about and that doesn’t exist on any map.

The story follows Dewey through the spring and summer of 1945, as her predilection for gathering junkyard castoffs for her inventions earns her the nickname “Screwy Dewey” among the Hill’s scientists’ children, and as her relationship with her father deepens. Dewey’s feeling of having a real home is snatched away when, on a trip to Washington, D.C., Dr. Kerrigan is killed by a drunk driver, and Dewey’s temporary living arrangement with the Gordon family must become long term. Now her initially antagonistic relationship with Suze Gordon, another outcast, changes in nature as they confront the possibility of becoming sisters and all the while, the development of “the Gadget” comes inevitably closer to completion. Only after the successful test of the “Fat Boy” bomb at the White Sands Proving Ground in the desolate Tularosa Basin south of Socorro, do the Los Alamos scientists begin to understand and consider the implications of what they have created.

Dr. Gordon smiled. “This is Trinity,” he said. “I thought you’d want to see it. Let’s walk.” They started across the dirt. There were no plants, none at all, not even grass or yucca. Just reddish beige, sandy dirt. Every few yards there was a charred greasewood bush. Each bush was twisted at the same odd angle, like a little black skeleton that had been pushed aside by a big wind. They kept walking. The skeletons disappeared, and then there was nothing at all. It was the emptiest place Dewey had ever seen. After about five minutes, Dewey looked down and saw burned spots that looked like little animals, like a bird or a desert mouse had been stenciled black against the hard, flat ground. She looked over at Mrs. Gordon. Mrs. Gordon had stopped walking. She stood a few yards back from the others, her lips pressed tight together, staring down at one of the black animal shapes. “Christ,” she said. “What have we done?” [Ellen Klages, The Green Glass Sea]

Klages exhibits a talent for depicting realistic relationships, for example when Suze draws a chalk line down the center of the room she is forced to share with Dewey. Klages also includes details from the era, such as popular music and store products, which the give the story authenticity. The addition of authentic details such as physicist J. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer, the euphemism “twisting the dragon’s tail”, and the death of one scientist due to radiation exposure also contribute to the book’s realism.

This novel would probably appeal to middle or high-school-age teens living in New Mexico, dealing as the story does with local history, and also to teens interested in the WWII time period or in the development of the atomic bomb. The audio format is likely to appeal to reluctant readers more than the print edition, it is also available in a digital ebook version.

The listening experience of the audiobook format brought an extra dimension to the story, allowing the audience to hear Dewey’s voice and bringing her personality to life for the listener, a process that can take longer to occur when reading a printed book. I found the novel interesting, as the story of the Manhattan Project was told in a different way, from the point of view of a young person on the inside of the top secret base. This book by Ellen Klages reminded me of another juvenile novel with the same setting, The Secret Project Notebook by Carolyn Reeder (2005, Los Alamos Historical Society).

I was critical of this audiobook on two points. One was that the reader’s ‘S’s occasionally “whistled,” which I found irritating at times. Also, the front cover art of the audiobook was quite different from the cover art of the hardback print edition shown above. It unfortunately contained erroneous elements, depicting the main character on a bicycle, overlooking the Trinity site, with a saguaro cactus in the foreground. I found this misleading, as in the story the character did not possess a bike, and saguaro cacti do not grow in New Mexico.

Reviews and Awards

Horn Book Magazine starred review: “intense but accessible page-turner; history and story are drawn together with confidence.”

Publishers Weekly starred review: “Klages makes an impressive debut with an ambitious, meticulously researched novel set during WWII. Writing from the points of view of two displaced children, she successfully recreates life at Los Alamos Camp, where scientists and mathematicians converge with their families to construct and test the first nuclear bomb. The author provides much insight into the controversies surrounding the making of the bomb and brings to life the tensions of war experienced by adults and children alike."

Booklist review: “the characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes.”

School Library Journal review: “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.”

Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2007
Notable Social Studies Trade Books, 2007
Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of the Year, 2006

Connections

Children could mark the places mentioned in the novel on a map of New Mexico, examine pieces of Trinitite (available through Internet purchase), or perhaps create a wall collage as story characters Dewey and Suze do in their house in Los Alamos.

The story continues in this second historical novel by Ellen Klages:

White Sands, Red Menace, 2008