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And Then the Sky Exploded

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Ninth-grader Christian Deaver learns his great-grandfather was part of the team that built the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War II. During a school trip to Japan, he meets a Hiroshima sur...
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  • 15 November 2016
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2018 Red Maple Award — Shortlisted • High Plains Book Award — Shortlisted, Young Adult category
When Christian learns his great-grandfather helped build the A-bombs dropped on Japan, he wants to make amends … somehow.

While attending the funeral of his great-grandfather, ninth-grader Christian Larkin learns that the man he loved and respected was a member of the Manhattan Project, the team that designed and created the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during the Second World War.

On a school trip to Japan, Chris meets eighty-one-year-old Yuko, who was eleven when the first bomb exploded over Hiroshima, horribly injuring her. Christian is determined to do something to make up for what his great-grandfather did. But after all this time, what can one teenager really do? His friends tell him it’s a stupid idea, that there’s nothing he can do. And maybe they’re right.

But maybe, just maybe … they’re wrong.
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Price: $12.99
Pages: 208
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Imprint: Dundurn Press
Publication Date: 15 November 2016
Trim Size: 8.00 X 5.00 in
ISBN: 9781459736375
Format: Paperback
BISACs: YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / Multigenerational, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family & home stories, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Historical / Military & Wars, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Values & Virtues, Children’s / Teenage social issues: War & conflict issues, Children’s / Teenage: Personal & social issues
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★ This memorable addition to Hiroshima literature should resonate with readers.

Yuko’s story and her meeting with Christian are worth reading and can start the conversation with young readers about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Poulsen’s latest is a great read.

A compelling story with strong characters whom the reader will find believable as well as likeable.

A great novel to begin the dialogue about nuclear disarmament, the realities of warfare, and the role of the individual in the global village.

A powerful story about forgiveness, healing and coming to terms with the sins of the past.
David A. Poulsen has been a broadcaster, teacher, football coach, and actor, who spends eighty to one hundred days each year as a visiting author in schools across Canada. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Old Man, which was shortlisted for the Forest of Reading White Pine award, and Numbers which won the Sakura Medal in Japan. He lives in the foothills west of Claresholm, Alberta.