David A. Poulsen
Dundurn Press, Ages 12-15
WHEN CHRIS LARKIN'S great-grandfather (GG Will) dies, the almost-14-year-old learns a few things: there was once an initiative called the Manhattan Project, GG Will was one of the scientists who worked on it, and the result was the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima. The idea that his beloved, street-hockey playing great-grandfather had a role in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people is devastating for Chris. Determined to find out exactly how GG Will was involved, and to make some kind of amends for the older man’s actions, Chris orchestrates a trip to Japan with his school’s travel club. Once there, Chris learns that his grandfather opposed the use of the technology he’d helped develop for warfare.