Zindel, Paul. The gadget.

Random House, Laurel-Leaf. 184p. bibliog, c2001. 0-440-22951-0. $5.50. J

To quote KLIATT's March 2001 review of the hardcover edition:

When inquisitive 13-year-old Stephen goes to join his physicist father at Los Alamos in February of 1945, he isn't sure what sort of project is being worked on there--just that it's top secret, and dangerous, too. His father and the other scientists are working around the clock, and all Stephen knows is that their work has to do with "something that could win the war. Something that could stop the Germans and the Japanese in their tracks," as his distant, distracted father says. Of course, this just piques Stephen's curiosity, and egged on by his new Russian friend Tilanov, he tries to find out what kind of "gadget" the scientists are creating. Disturbed and angry at what his father is involved with, Stephen runs away to Tilanov's family ranch, only to learn that Tilanov's family are spies. They try to kill Stephen, who narrowly escapes. Stephen also learns that his father has misgivings about the project. although he feels it's necessary to end the war, and that he truly cares about Stephen.

The cover of this historical novel by the well-known author of The Pigman and many other works for YAs gives the secret of the gadget away, depicting as it does a boy's shocked face with the image of an exploding bomb reflected in his sunglasses. It's a fast-moving story that sacrifices character development for plot, but YAs won't much care, as they will be caught up in Stephen's exciting adventures. Zindel includes a chronology of WW II and the making of the bomb, along with brief descriptions of some of the important people involved with it and a list of sources he consulted. A good complement to discussions of the bomb and studies of WW II. KLIATT