February 2, 2012

Menacing times

by Ellen Klages


In this sequel to The Green Glass Sea, Dewey is living comfortably with Suze Gordon's family in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Suze's father is working at the White Sands Missile Range where he's building a rocket that will go to the moon. In the meantime, his wife is trying to stop the Bomb. Their differing views between scientific advancement and world peace is causing a lot of conflict. Meanwhile, Suze and Dewey have combined their talents into building "The Wall", a creative contraption with gears, buckets, and marbles. Suze, still a bit of an outsider, becomes friends with a Mexican-American family, while dealing with feelings of jealousy about her mother's close relationship with Dewey. Dewey, who actually fits in now, is close friends with a boy who shares her interests. But things get complicated when her previously absent mother suddenly shows up.

Themes of family, abortion, politics, racism, sexism, science and road warriors (really!)  are seamlessly woven together to create an absorbing novel.

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