No. 5

No. 5 was The Bomb by Theodore Taylor:

I grabbed this older book off the cart of library discards. There's nothing wrong with these books - they're just older and aren't getting checked out, so Eryn's clearing shelf space.

The Bomb is historical fiction about Sorry, a boy living in Bikini Atoll during World War II. After the "successful" bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. chose Bikini Atoll for further atomic bomb research. They relocated the natives, including Sorry and his family, and then destroyed their island homes.

This is a beautiful telling of life on the Northern Marshall Islands and a horrifying account of the takeover and relocation by the American military.

While this book was intended for a younger audience, I still found it well-written and a wonderfully told story. I'm now fascinated by the events of the time. I also have many students from the South Pacific, included the Marshall Islands. I'm interested to speak with them and see what they know of these events.

I did an internet search to see how much was fiction and how much was reality. Apparently, aside from Sorry himself, this seems to be a fairly historically accurate book. I would highly recommend this read - and also following up with this Web site for more historical and present-day information on the impact of the U.S. decision to take over and blow up their land, nearly wiping out the people.

BikiniAtoll.com