Fallout

Imagine you are 12 years old and there is a threat of nuclear war over your head. That was reality for a lot of 5/6th graders in the early 60s as the Cuban Missile Crisis loomed.

Strasser gives us a view into what might have happened on one block if only one family had built a bomb shelter. The kids will be kids chapters flashbacks may be confusing to some for timeline reasons, but from a reading perspective, they are interesting and really ground us in the time and with our characters.

The dialogue, characters, and plot are all in line, but I felt like this book was a little too scary. The big injury is needed to motivate discussions of worthiness and race that the book also tries to touch on, but I don't know that it needed to be what it was. I'm not sure what kids would make of that.

Kids reading this book likely have lots of questions - or should be prompted because there are some talkable topics: bullying, stealing, sex, alcohol, racism, ableism...along with nuclear war.

Much more juvenile than I expected