The Atomic Bomb

VOYA

AGERANGE: Ages 11 to 15.

In these two “What in the World?” series books, Fandel gives a short overview of a particular topic in history and attempts to position it in context with world events during the same period. Both books include stunning photographs on every page. Small pastel boxes containing random trivia are placed throughout both books. The Atomic Bomb focuses on the life of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and how he and his team developed the bomb. The subject matter is intriguing, but interruptions by the photographs and trivia, which tend to focus heavily on art of the 1940s, make reading the text somewhat of a chore. These sidelines are fairly interesting, but can be puzzling because they are often completely unrelated to the subject at hand. For example, in The Atomic Bomb, the author mentions the discovery of the Lascaux cave paintings in 1940 and the opening of Route 66 in 1926. The Postage Stamp is more cohesive and informative. The photographs, for the most part, beautifully enhance the text and include many large color pictures of collectible stamps. In this source, as with the first, much of the trivia seems random and unrelated to the topic, which makes reading distracting rather than interesting. Both books include time lines at the end which, again, present a variety of random facts. This series, which also includes Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, The Light Bulb, and The Statue of Liberty, are fun to peruse, but for serious research, students will have more success with other available sources. Reviewer: Dotsy Harland
April 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 1)

Children's Literature - Judy DaPolito

This brief history of the development and explosion of the atomic bomb places the process in the context of the conflicts of the twentieth century. It begins by describing the test of the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert. The next section of the text discusses the actions of Germany under Adolf Hitler between 1939 and 1945, the problems of the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin, and Japan's invasion of China and Southeast Asia. Other changes in world behavior are then mentioned, such as American women's large scale entry into the work force, African-American soldiers' desire for civil rights, and portrayals of the struggles of poor and indigenous peoples by artists from the American South. The focus of much of the rest of the text is European and American developments in the field of physics, particularly the contributions of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer's boyhood is discussed in detail, as is the period of his graduate work in physics and his teaching and research work in California and New Mexico. When World War II began in Europe, Oppenheimer and other American scientists were chosen to beat the Germans to the development of the atomic bomb. By the fall of 1942, Oppenheimer was director of the "Manhattan Project," headquartered in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and within 28 months he and his team—including Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, and Edward Condon—had built the world's first uranium and plutonium atomic bombs. President Truman ordered the use of the bomb to end the war in Japan, and on August 6, 1945, a devastating bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, with a second bomb to follow at Nagasaki on August 9. The book is thoroughly illustrated, though someof the earlier illustrations interrupt the text more than they illuminate it. Following the text are a timeline of Oppenheimer's life and a brief index. The book is part of the "What in the World" series. Reviewer: Judy DaPolito