Customer Reviews

Where the Ground Meets the Sky

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This is a book to give your kid this summer. It is a terrific read with characters a kid will relate to, a real world mystery and a story which will make them think.
In 1942 Los Alamos was a practically empty mesa in the desert Southwest. By 1943 it was the home to the Manhattan Project and the families of the men and women creating the world's first atom bomb. We see this world through the eyes of 12 year old Hazel, the most interesting character I have run across since I met Sharon Creech's Sal in Walk Two Moons. No one knows what the Dad's and Mom's are working on and Hazel intends to find out. What she learns, and how she gets there, makes a very captivating and tight story.

A wonderfully written, informative, and thoughtful book on a subject that has not been extensively covered in books for young readers. Hazel is not your average twelve-year old in 1943. But then, neither is her family. Where The Ground Meets the Sky gives readers, young and old, an "up close and personal" glimpse into the family dynamics of living at Los Alamos while scientists were developing the "bomb". Reading almost like a mystery at times, we see the effects of this discovery from a different perspective -that of Hazel, her friends and her sensitive mother. An excellent source of discussion for both young and old.