White Sands, Red Menace [Hardcover]

Ellen Klages (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

It is 1946, and the events of The Green Glass Sea have changed the world?and Dewey Kerrigan?s life. She?s now living near the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico with the Gordon family. Dr. Gordon is working on rockets that will someday go to the moon; Mrs. Gordon is working on stopping the Bomb. Meanwhile, Dewey and her ?sister,? Suze, share secrets, art, and science as they adjust to high school in an isolated desert town. Then, like a different kind of dropped bomb, Dewey?s long-lost mother, Rita Gallucci, reappears in their lives. And she wants to take her daughter away.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–9—In this sequel to The Green Glass Sea (Viking, 2006), Dewey and the Gordon family have relocated from Los Alamos to Alamogordo, NM, now that World War II is over, because Mr. Gordon has been offered a job to develop rockets for the U.S. government. Dewey and Suze Gordon are comfortable with one another, almost like sisters, and begin eighth grade together at a new school, where they are required to take home economics instead of shop. Suze's mother has had to put her academic career as a chemist on hold and is struggling with her growing estrangement from her husband, based primarily on their different positions about the atomic bomb. But Dewey relishes the close bond that she is developing with Mrs. Gordon, only to have it disrupted by the arrival of her birth mother, who left Dewey and her dad when she was two. Superbly written and rich in detail, Klages's novel once again nails the uncertainty that many Americans experienced after the truths of Hiroshima began to surface. History is intricately woven into the story of these memorable characters, and issues such as self-identity, family, and racism are explored. The desert heat is palpable, the immense expanses are easily visualized, and the roles that women and minorities played in the late 1940s are painfully evident. The only problem is minor—the threat in this volume is not "red" communism, but rather ex-Nazis and the atomic research itself, so the title might mislead readers. Nonetheless, this book is every bit as powerful as its predecessor.—Melissa Moore, Union University Library, Jackson, TN
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Klages’ The Green Glass Sea (2006) won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and in this gripping sequel, set just after World War II, science, mechanics, and politics continue to play a big role in the teen friendship story. Dewey’s atomic-scientist dad has died in a traffic accident, and she has moved in with her friend Suze’s family near Los Alamos. Suze’s dad is driven by his work in the new frantic race to build a rocket (“The first man in space mustn’t be a Russian”), and he fights bitterly with his peacenik wife, Terry, about Hiroshima and the radiation nightmare. There is sometimes too much local detail, but the groundbreaking science is part of daily life for the smart techno-teens, and the adult characters are as compelling as the kids. As Klages said in an interview in the November 2007 issue of Book Links magazine, people are excited about future technology, “and others are afraid that there won’t be a future.” Along with these global issues, Klages’ compelling story explores personal relationships and what it means to be a family. Grades 5-8. --Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (October 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670062359
• ISBN-13: 978-0670062355
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "So how could ordinary blood be stronger?", October 15, 2008

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Sands, Red Menace (Hardcover)

When authors choose historical moments in time to set their stories against, surely the temptation must be to go for the big shiny moments, yes? The Alamo. The sinking of the Titanic. Gigantic wars. Dramatic moments in human history are the natural lure and there's nothing wrong with that. It's natural. So what are we to make of the author that eschews all that for the seemingly less interesting eras? Say, for example, 1946? World War II is over and America hasn't fully bought into McCarthyism quite yet. There aren't any spies or big battles to cover. Instead there's something more insidious. The feel of a nation trying to do what is right, but also getting sucked into the fear and paranoia that will cause countless problems a couple years down the line. To write something this subtle without boring a child audience takes a deft hand, and author Ellen Klages is up to the challenge. Having already established her setting and characters in the Scott O'Dell Award winning book The Green Glass Sea, Klages now turns her sights on the aftermath of WWII in America and the effects of the time period on cultural and personal relations. A little slow to start, once this sequel gets moving there's no stopping it.

It's been eight months since World War II ended. Eight months and in that time Dewey Kerrigan has fitted in nicely with her friend Suze Gordan's family. Now they've moved from Los Alamos to Alamogordo, New Mexico because of Mr. Gordon's current work on the government's rocket program. Things are progressing fairly quickly for the girls as well. They're both still fascinated by mixing Suze's artistic talent with Dewey's scientific bent, but they're also growing up. Suze makes friends with a Mexican-American girl and her family, Dewey is friends (or more?) with a boy who shares her technical bent. But in the meantime tensions are brewing. Is Dewey closer to Suze's scientific mom than she is? Are Mr. and Mrs. Gordan going to divorce over their different beliefs? Why is Mrs. Gordan feeling so ill? And who is this strange motorcycle riding woman who's just driven into town looking for Dewey of all people? Mysteries are answered and realities changed in an America where nothing is as straightforward as it seems.

The book begins slowly, I just have to tell you right now. Unless children have read its predecessor, I'm not altogether certain they'll stick with the first few chapters where nothing much really happens unless they're pushed a little. Yet as it goes on, White Sands builds its own momentum. But to find the right child audience for this book, you have to know your reader. In Green Glass Sea Dewey is reading Caddie WoodlawnCaddie Woodlawn and only enjoying the section where Caddie starts fixing clocks. There are lots of kids like Dewey out there who prefer novels with science, non-fiction, politics, and realism. These are the children that visibly cringe when you move a Harry Potter novel into their physical sphere. The ones who find a great deal of satisfaction in reading about process. And there really is something wholly satisfying in watching people do what they love even if it isn't what you personally love too. I'm not saying that fantasy readers won't also find a lot to enjoy in this title but personally I think that it will be particularly beloved by a very particular type of reader.

As for the age range there are certainly some older themes at work here. Parents whose marriage may be on the rocks because of political beliefs. First kisses. Whether blood really is as strong as everyone says. That said, it's rendered in kid-friendly language, so I don't think an intelligent ten or eleven-year-old would have much difficulty with the reading.

When a historical novel feels contemporary because the emotions and characters feel like they exist in the here and now, that's the mark of a great book, my friend. One of Klages' real talents is the balance of the past and the present. She takes great pains to remain historically accurate. That's why the Author's Note at the back includes a bibliography of titles discussing the 1940s, the atomic bomb, spinthariscopes, the V-2 rocket program, and White Sands National Monument. There's even additional information on El Paso's first TV station (it comes up in the plot) and Yuri Gagarin, the first Russian cosmonaut. As for the characters, the leap between two points of view (Dewey and Suze) without traipsing into first person territory is difficult and yet done seamlessly here. You never feel jerked from one person's view to another's. This book may have its basis in the past, but it feels fresh to read it today.

My husband is a screenwriter with a penchant for writing noirs. In his research he's done a lot of study on Operation Paperclip, the O.S.S.-U.S. Military employment of scientists from Nazi Germany just after the Second World War. Basically, it was when America hired Nazi scientists to work for us instead of the Russians. It's not the kind of thing many people know, and I've certainly never seen it mentioned in children's literature. It was fascinating to find not only a mention of this in White Sands but actual Nazi scientists interacting with the characters. So when Dewey asks why Nuremberg even happened ("How come the army executed these Nazis, and not the V-2 ones?") it's a completely legitimate question that people are still asking to this day. Not that the kids in the book ever find an answer to it.

Though it's not at the center of the story, the Gordons' debate over nuclear proliferation is also fascinating. Mr. Gordon explains patiently to Dewey that this is scientific progress and cannot, nay, should not be stopped. Mrs. Gordon however sees this as the very cause of wars and not the prevention. And Klages, to her credit, never really dings the bell and declares one side a winner over another. Still, you'll probably figure out which take she prefers by the story's end.

Like I say, maybe it's not a book for every kid out there but certainly it has an audience. Readers who read Green Glass Sea and wondered how Suze and Dewey would fare in the same home will find the answers. Readers who enjoy this period in history, any period in history, rockets, exploding atoms, science, or any or all of that will find something to enjoy here. Great writing, a fascinating plot, and female road hogs (I'm not kidding). What's not to love? A great follow-up by an accomplished writer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, October 24, 2008

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Sands, Red Menace (Hardcover)

Rocket this. Atomic-powered that. They are all the rage in the United States during the post-War era.

Dewey and Suze have moved with Suze's scientist parents to New Mexico. Phil, Suze's dad, works endlessly on a new project -- a rocket that could eventually land on the moon while Terry, Suze's mom, obsesses over her mission against the Bomb which both she and Phil created.

Dewey and Suze love working on "the wall" in their new bedroom. They tinker, build, and add more and more to the carefully constructed contraptions, even though girls aren't supposed to be interested in things like that. When Dewey's long-lost mother shows up, Dewey struggles to understand the meaning of family.

Take a trip back in time and be fascinated by people and events that created history and helped shape the world as we know it.

Reviewed by: Dianna Geers

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional and rivoting, August 24, 2011

By 

Dave Fernandes (Chelsea, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Sands, Red Menace (Hardcover)

This was supposed to be for my daughter but I ended up reading it and yes, shedding a tear or two -- or three throughout the read. There are a lot of Dewey's in the world that are a bit withdrawn, nerdy, and, like we all are at times, struggling with life. Dewey, to me, is a very presentable character. She's not Harry Potter. To me, she feels far more real that Harry.
What makes this read so wonderful is the characterizations. We both get an everyday snapshot of life in the late 1940's and we get small moments that are often so rare in books where we see how much everyday life can shape us. It allows us to slowly absorb the characters and their actions.
What also makes this book special is how dark it really is beneath the surface. Discussions of abortion, the atomic bomb, teenage pregnancy, racism, sexism, propaganda and so forth all percolate to the surface without dominating the story. In essence the themes are there but never become the focus of the story.
I think the author's greatest gift is her ability to examine the darkest of themes without ever becoming melodramatic making it a 'disease of the week' drama. I love this book from page one to the end and hope the story of Dewey and Suzie continues.