Books and Literature for Teens: White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages

Thursday, February 19, 2009

White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages

FROM THE JACKET:

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.

The Review

Like it says above, it's the sequel to The Green Glass Sea. Though I didn't read the first book first, I'm glad I didn't. Who knows, if I hadn't picked up the second book because: #1 there's not many books about life after WWII; #2 it took place in Alamogordo, New Mexico, I may have not never gotten to meet Dewey and Suze.

It was fun reading about the 40s with it's first Harley Davidson gangs, old movies, slang words of the era, the first TVs, and the inside scoop on the missiles being tested out on the White Sands Missile Range.

This book will make you look for the nearest Drug Store that sells old fashion sodas!

Dewey and Suze are two average girls (with the exception of "bomb scientist" parents): one's the artsy string bean and the other is the "whiz kid". Having The Wall gave the book a great whimsical fling to it. (Dewey and Suze literally built a entire wall with moving gizmos, levers, pulleys, a diorama of the Alamogordo fair, and other movable objects.) I definitely recommend reading this book-wether or not you've read the first one.

-Alamogordo Now-

Alamogordo hasn't changed much (I pass through there often since I live in NM), just a little newer. The School for the Blind is still there, so is the scrap yard that's mentioned in the book (it's three times as bigger now and filled with old cars), and the Missile Range is as active as ever.

There is no "Little Chihuahua" anymore, but since the German Military Base was founded, there has been hundreds of German moving in. So many, that there is now German side of town.

Well there you have it. The past and present history of Alamogordo, NM. Now, you need to get a better taste of it through Ellen Klages White Sands, Red Menace!