About a Book - The Green Glass Sea

The Green Glass Sea tells of two girls: Dewey and Suze. Dewey loves to invent and build things - things like radios, robots, and other "gizmos". Like most people in town, Suze thinks Dewey is really strange, but when Dewey's father goes away and she has to move in with Suze's family, the two form an unlikely but strong friendship. Sounds like an ordinary enough story....

But, it isn't ordinary after all. The Green Glass Sea takes place in a town called Los Alamos in the 1940s, during World War II. Los Alamos was a secret place in the middle of the desert, where some of the most brilliant scientists from all over the country were sent to live with their families and work on a top secret mission - to build and test the atomic bomb. This is where Dewey and Suze live their story, and even they don't realize the nature of the project their parents are working on and how it will change the world.

Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction, this is a fascinating novel which will provoke much thought and discussion. This is also a Reading Olympics pick for Fall 2008, so get an early start!

Tuesday's Movie - The Diary of Anne Frank

Through young Anne's eyes, the Diary of Anne Frank tells the story of the Frank family who are forced to go into hiding with another family during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. For two years the families lived in the close quarters of a loft above a spice factory - not daring to pull back the curtains or even make a sound during the day. The stories Anne recounts in her diary are about the war and also how life continues on in their hidden home - Hannukah is celebrated, the children argue with their parents, romance blooms, and Anne nourishes her dreams of becoming a writer.

This 1959 film adaptation of a play adapted from the actual diary of Anne Frank won 3 Academy Awards and 5 more award nominations at the time of its release. While the movie is in black and white, the cinematography is beautiful and the film is still crisp.