Fallout (258+ Pages)

I think I've read almost every YA book Todd Strasser has written. The Wave and Give a Boy a Gun are two of my all time favorite YA books, not just for the read itself, but for the terrific discussion both books This book is no exception. It not only deals with the question, "Why War?" but also took me back to my days in the early 60's when The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred and scared everyone in the United States. What Strasser has done in this book is to fictionalize a historical event ( The Cuban Missile Crisis ) and has varied his plot structure with pre-bomb and post-bomb chapters. The story is told in the voice of Scott, a middle school student. Scott's father is one of the few people in his town to build a bomb shelter in their back year. He is ridiculed by most adults who hear about it. The shelter is built to offer shelter to four people Scott, his brother Edward, his mother and his father. There is food and water for the four of them to last for two weeks, when the radiation levels should be low enough for them to survive above ground. The book opens with Scott being roughly shaken awake by his father as the country is under attack. The text is frightening, as it moves forward in time. Strasser adds an author's note at the end of the book, and in three and a half pages explains what happened to him and his younger brother when his own father had a bomb shelter built in their back yard. This book offers so many questions for students to ask about appropriate ethics, about family values, about friendship, and about "Why War?"