The Bomb by Theodore Taylor

The Bomb Reviews

• 
  Diane

  This is the story of the A Bomb testing on the Bikini Atoll told from the perspective of a young man who grew up on the island. I have a on-going interest in reading about the social side of the atomic bomb in Japan and its effect on the people of Japan and the US. I was drawn to this book because of that interest and also because a friend spent 2 years in the Marshall Island (Bikini is one of the Marshalls) in the 1990s; her husband was part of a team testing the conditions on Bikini. She told us much about the effect of the US culture on the Marshallese people.
  
  The story is interesting and compelling. I was hovering between a 4 and 5 when I read the epilogue. The author was at Bikini for the bomb testing. He saw the island's inhabitants being evacuated. He knows what happened. The book is an apology for his part in his country's atrocity written when he was about 75 years old. He says "This book was terribly hard to write." Clearly a 5-star book.
• 
  Danielle Wood

  I've been a big Theodore Taylor fan ever since my 4th grade teacher read 'The Cay' to my class. I had no idea about this book until I found it in a Goodwill several years ago. I'm working through books on my shelf at home that I haven't read yet and this made my 2023 list. It was well written and made me so angry! I had no idea about the atomic bomb testing done in the Bikini Atoll and the people who were displaced. Theodore Taylor saw this firsthand and was so upset by it, he decided to write a book about it. It was very eye opening and a great read.
• 
  Stella Aversa

  Interesting! Ending was expected but also unexpected in a way.
• 
  P.M.

  I tend to enjoy these end of the world books - especially those about atomic bombs. What makes this frightening is that this is based on real life - the poor Bikini Islanders who were evacuated and still haven't been allowed to go home.
• 
  Kimberley

  An 8th grader recommended this book, and I'm so glad she did. Here is another piece of history I knew nothing about: Bikini Atoll and atomic weapons testing. I didn't expect to be moved by this story, but Taylor does a good job of telling the story through a 14-year-old boy's experience.
• 
  Zora

  
  
  In 1945, the author was part of the U.S. Naval force that went to prepare Bikini Atoll for a series of nuclear bomb tests. His job was to blow the holy hell out of coral reefs with conventional explosives to prepare for the bomb. Others relocated the indigenous Polynesian people from a place they were able to survive comfortably on fish and coconuts and minimal farming of taro, from their home for hundred of years. Problem is (you can read about this in the afterword to this book or over at Wikipedia), they were relocated to an atoll that couldn't support them. Two years later, a different naval group came by and found 200 starving people there. And they had been lied to about when they'd be able to return to Bikini. So the starving survivors were relocated again, and again. Some returned to the atoll in the 70's, having been told by the U.S. everything was just dandy now, and (you're not going to be surprised at this, are you?) it wasn't, and they had radiation-based illnesses, including miscarriages and birth defects and radioactive food and water; moreover, the culture that had thrived there before we saw fit to poison the atoll had been effectively destroyed anyway. Geez, just an awful story, the sort that makes me hang my head in shame. Even without the story of the abuse of native people, it's an awful tale of wanton ecological destruction of island paradises.
  
  Filled with horror and guilt of his own, the author finally, years later, wrote about the events in this novel, which follows an imaginary teen boy who in the first half of the book lives his island life with some awareness of the war going on but whose main worry is sharks in the lagoon, and in the second half, is not getting on board with the relocation program. (The island chief and some other characters are historical.) Without spoiling it, I can tell you that the last 1/5 of the book is not for the faint of heart. While it's a YA book because of the protagonist, it'd give sensitive adults nightmares.
• 
  P.D.R. Lindsay

  This is not an easy book to read, although it is meant for teenagers. Taylor was present at Bikini Atoll for the first atomic bomb test and he says he found it really difficult to write about even after fifty years. You can see why as you follow the story of Sorry Rinamu, and his family, forced, with their whole village, off their home island, Bikini Atoll. Their attempts to stop being moved and then to prevent the bomb being dropped are heart wrenching.
  
  The book is simply written, no sermons or raging speeches by the author, the reader is allowed to see and understand as Sorry sees and understands. This makes their uprooting, and the lying promise about a return in two years, all the more poignant. As a history lesson the book is superb. As a demonstration of the racism. lying and bullying by large nations of smaller ones in the 1950s, it is shamefully truthful. Whilst it would be a good history text, and is excellent YA reading, this novel should be recommended to anyone who is not old enough to remember the first atomic bomb test and all the people who suffered as a result of it.
  
• 
  Brian Murphy

  I read this in junior high and the story stuck with me. After seeing Oppenheimer I wanted to check this book out. I was able to get a copy to revisit and I'm glad I did.
• 
  Ted Ziolkowski

  The 4 stars are awarded because the story was well written, contains precise details aligned with the historical context and was gripping. Also, this book engages the reader into a heart wrenching plot, as it focuses on a minority people who are removed from their homes then eventually killed by the atomic bomb. By allowing the reader to view the effects of the end of WWII/atomic explosions through the perspective of a fourteen year old boy, "The Bomb" emphasizes the pain and damage caused. Since the plot of the book ties in greatly with history, some of the outcome could be predicted, which could make the reader less interested. Overall, the book does a great job of highlighting the negative outcomes of the atomic bomb and makes one wish the bomb was never invented.
• 
  Garrett

  The inevitability of this book is really quite something, and the heroic sadness of the main character's arc and mission are not to be missed. This is a YA book in name only, though - it could easily be a kid's book for the level at which it is written; it's only the themes of displacement, war, the bomb of the title and the intimations of rape (the Japanese taking "comfort women") at the beginning that keep this from being an informative book for 4th and 5th graders. Well done but slowly paced.
• 
  Henry Cansler

  It was definitely a hard read. The writing was clear and the imagery was amazing, but it made me very angry. It uncovers lots of injustices done by the US and the Poor treatment of Bikini Atoll Citizens. I would not recommend this as a relaxing read for these reasons. But if these kinds of historical events interest you, I would suggest preparing yourself by looking into the Nuclear Testing at Bikini Atoll before reading.
  
• 
  Bradley

  I thought the book was OK, but the names were confusing. For example, one of the names is "Sorry". I kind of liked the book because it presented actual facts. One thing I learned is that Atom Bombs are made from Nuclear Fission. Overall, I would give the book a 3 star because of the action and because of the interesting facts.
  
• 
  Tracy Dishman

  Life in Bikini Atoll - a small stretch of land in the western Pacific Ocean - is about as close to paradise as you can get.
  But in 1946, the US government has chosen Bikini Atoll as its testing site for atomic bombs.
  
  This book is based on a true story. The US government really did take the island and destroyed it.
• 
  Aspen Cooper

  I honestly didn’t know about any of this. It’s not told I’m history class or shared by grandparents. It makes my heart hurt knowing that the government uprooted an entire civilization so they could test an evil creation. Taylor did an excellent job bringing a historic event into the homes of his readers. As Taylor wrote, “It did create a modern Trail of Tears.”
• 
  Christina

  A really good middle grade book. I like how books like this (including this one) are able to tackle difficult situations in a way that depending on your understanding, you will take out of it different things. As an adult reader, I understood a lot more than when I would read this as a child. Discussing atomic bomb testing, but also touching on colonization, ownership, autonomy, and racism.
• 
  Cristian Stefanizzi

  It was good