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Bomb : the race to build--and steal--the world's most dangerous weapon
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2023
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Booklist Review
Sheinkin's Sibert-winning Bomb (2012) made history come alive with compelling narrative threads and cliff-hanger teases instead of the usual bombardment of facts and dates. A little more than a decade later, this graphic novel adaptation tells the same captivating story of science and espionage but perhaps makes it all the more approachable in the process. Sheinkin makes full use of the graphic format--word and thought bubbles delve more into the thoughts and motivations of these complicated historical figures; the visual narrative also whittles down an already slick story even further, making it even more fast-paced than ever. Though it's unfortunate that the photos from the original are not in this version, Bertozzi's artwork nicely capture the emotions of the characters and the impact of the events; the eventual bombing of Hiroshima, for example, is hauntingly captured and deeply moving. Some may feel a bit of the magic of the original is lost in the transfer, but overall Sheinkin once again shows his versatility with this simple yet powerful format shift.
Horn Book Review
Sheinkin's work of award-winning narrative nonfiction (Bomb, rev. 11/12) is here sharpened by the author's own graphic adaptation -- and portrayed through Bertozzi's skillful cartooning -- amplifying the drama, intrigue, and brutality irrevocably linked with the dawn of the atomic age. In five chapters, roughly spanning the years of WWII, Sheinkin cogently interconnects a massive cast of world leaders, scientists, military personnel, spies, and civilians across a mostly chronological account of the Manhattan Project. Unique for this new edition, Sheinkin chose the post-war interrogation of Harry Gold (a Philadelphia factory worker who spied for the Soviets) as the narrative's through line. This clever bit of storytelling permits the omniscient narrator to seamlessly move between key events as they are discussed during Gold's hardboiled questioning. The Golden Age-style illustrations generally adhere to an efficient three-tier, nine-panel page layout yet regularly shift in size, shape, and number to underscore significant moments and ideas. Notably, a stark white page is used to depict the detonation of the Little Boy atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Back matter includes an author's note describing Sheinkin's adaptation process, while an informative epilogue ends on a slightly more ominous note than the original: "How does this story end? We don't know -- because it's still going on. And, like it or not, you're in it." Patrick GallJanuary/February 2023 p.109 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A graphic version, losing none of the original's high drama, of Sheinkin's 2012 award-winning account of the supposedly secret Manhattan Project. It's a big story, but the author expertly juggles multiple plotlines to tell a coherent tale at breakneck speed, with all the significant encounters, quotes, and technological breakthroughs intact and a prose afterword to wrap up loose ends. Using a mix of emotionally intense face-to-face exchanges and silent reaction shots in his realistically drawn scenes, Bertozzi creates a properly cinematic flow as he portrays, on the one hand, the development and cataclysmic use of the first two atomic bombs and, on the other, how the Manhattan Project's secrets were collected and transported from Los Alamos to the Soviets. Two figures stand out in particular from the teeming cast (which is not quite all-male, as several women played important roles on both sides): Harry Gold, a reluctant courier whose prominence is boosted here by several newly added scenes, and Robert Oppenheimer, who headed up the project's research team and whose appalled recollection of a line from the Bhagavad-Gita in the wake of the Trinity test explosion--"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"--remains the Atomic Age's most powerful and (probably) prophetic motto. A heady whirl of science and spycraft made even more immediate (and frightening) by strong visuals. (Graphic history. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary

A riveting graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning nonfiction book, Bomb --the fascinating and frightening true story of the creation behind the most destructive force that birthed the arms race and the Cold War.

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned three continents.

In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin's award-winning nonfiction book is now available reimagined in the graphic novel format. Full color illustrations from Nick Bertozzi are detailed and enriched with the nonfiction expertise Nick brings to the story as a beloved artist, comic book writer, and commercial illustrator who has written a couple of his own historical graphic novels, including Shackleton and Lewis & Clark .

Accessible, gripping, and educational, this new edition of Bomb is perfect for young readers and adults alike.

Praise for Bomb (2012):
"This superb and exciting work of nonfiction would be a fine tonic for any jaded adolescent who thinks history is 'boring.' It's also an excellent primer for adult readers who may have forgotten, or never learned, the remarkable story of how nuclear weaponry was first imagined, invented and deployed--and of how an international arms race began well before there was such a thing as an atomic bomb." -- The Wall Street Journal

"This is edge-of-the seat material that will resonate with YAs who clamor for true spy stories, and it will undoubtedly engross a cross-market audience of adults who dozed through the World War II unit in high school." -- The Bulletin (starred review)

Also by Steve Sheinkin:

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery
Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War

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