Bomb by Steve Sheinkin – Fabulous Non-fiction

There is a reason Steve Sheinkin‘s non-fiction book Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon (Roaring Brook, 2012) has won the 2013 Newbery Honor Award, the 2013 Sibert Medal, and the 2013 YALSA Award.  This book is AMAZING–not a word I use lightly. I just finished my first non-fiction manuscript for an educational publisher.  In my kidlit work, I write primarily fiction, so writing a non-fiction book was a new challenge.  It’s not easy to create an appealing story that is also factually true (all those pesky facts get in the way of the narrative arc).  My research on the beginnings of the Cold War led me to Bomb. Move over David McCullough–Sheinkin is a masterful story-teller of non-fiction.  As his website says, “Yes, it’s true, I used to write history textbooks. But I don’t do that kind of thing anymore. Now I try to write history books that people will actually read voluntarily.” Bomb “weaves together three basic story lines,” says Sheinkin. “[T]he Americans try to build a bomb, the Soviets try to steal it, and the Allies try to sabotage the German bomb project.”   My mom always said that the best children’s book can be read [...]