The Green Glass Sea ~ Ellen Klages

So much available reading material about WWII, and the Holocaust, even within the Young Adult Literature world. Lots of books to pick from, many very well-regarded ones. But, it seems to me that, for the most part, much of the fiction written about this time period is set in Europe, in Germany or other nearby parts. Another line of related books chronicles the Japanese Internment side of the war. I think Farewell to Manzanar is a classic for this [note: I’ve never read this one, and think I should give it a try sometime]; and, a year or so back I read Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata, which also tells the story of a Japanese family in the U.S. during WWII.

The Green Glass Sea, which is billed as historical fiction (and it clearly and successfully is this), [for me, one sign of good historical fiction is that it gets me interested in learning more about that time period, and what was going on at the time], falls into neither of the above categories, but is set in this same time period: WWII. The story takes place in New Mexico, Los Alamos, to be exact. Though, at the time of the story, the place is really only barely coming to be known as Los Alamos. The story primarily follows two eleven year old girls. While they are quite different from each other, they do have one important thing in common: both are the daughters of top notch scientists/mathematicians, called to this place, out in the middle of nowhere, where all the good brains of the time have gathered to try to create a solution to the war.

What a great idea for a story: creating the world of the kids living in that time and place, looking at that event through the eyes of the children who were there at the time, really just living very everyday lives, in a slightly not so everyday place.

The girls, Dewey and Suze, are young, and innocent, though their innocence is not just a function of their youth. The work the people are doing on “the hill,” as it is known, is top secret and while everyone knows they are trying to create a solution to deal with the war, no one is really talking about what they are doing.

From our removed, 21st century perspective, we, of course, have some idea of what they are doing; and this omniscient perspective that we have, compared to the limited perspective the narrators have (while the story is told/written in the third person, it is actually really being told through the eyes of either Dewey or Suze, depending on the chapter) is one of the interesting things about this story. For me, what was also interesting was just getting a little window in to this one specific element of the larger WWII story.

I loved some, though not all, of the characters (which is as it should be and, I think, what the author intended for us), and felt fully engaged by their circumstances and stories. Even though at some level, we know what happens in the end (just like we know that the Titanic sinks, but are still interested in the stories of those on the boat), I was still curious and, as I read, found myself always wanting to know what would happen next, as the story unfolded, and wanting to know what happened “in the end” for these particular people. Really, this might be my favorite book yet, this fall.