Fallout

Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone by Rebecca L. Johnson
Minneapolis : Twenty-First Century Books, [2015]
64 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 27 cm.

As most people know, there was a devastating nuclear plant disaster in April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what was then the Soviet Union (but is now in Ukraine).  There have been some stories over the years about the city Pripyat, which was rapidly evacuated a few days after the disaster and remains abandoned.  But this book looks at the South Carolina sized exclusion zone (which includes the former city of Pripyat), with a focus on the abundance of wildlife in this area where very few humans live.

Remarkably, in spite of some very high levels of radiation in the zone, wildlife is thriving, and what makes this book really engaging is that the author examines two contrary conclusions reached by scientists studying the zone.  One scientist and his colleagues study small mammals like mice and voles and have concluded that the long term exposure to low (but dangerous) levels of radiation have made these animals healthier and more resistant.  Another team of scientists who study barn swallows arrive at the opposite conclusion, noting very high levels of mutations and tumors in their avian subjects.

The book invites readers to consider both possibilities and provides lots of great information and illustrations about the initial disaster and its decades long after effects.  It gets one thinking about unexpected effects of humanity (and the absence of humanity) on the environment.  It had me thinking about the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge (where the US made nuclear weapons) and the Korean DMZ.  And this book does all this in just sixty-four short pages.  Not bad.

Of Course It's a Mess

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer
New York, NY : Dutton Books, [2016]
355 p. ; 22 cm.

A bloody mess actually, because what else would you expect when living people suddenly (or should I say spontaneously) explode into a mess of liquefied body parts and fluids?   

The beginning of Spontaneous reminds me a bit of Gone by Michael Grant, in that an ordinary day at a high school becomes anything but normal with a shocking turn of events.  In this case it's when one the seniors in the school spontaneously combusts during a class.  When this is followed by many more single and multiple combustions over the course of the novel things get very crazy, and very disturbing.

I liked the first three-fourths of this novel pretty well.  The premise is a real hook for readers and by telling it all from the viewpoint of one of the smart and grim-humored characters - Mara Carlyle - the novel moves along at a raucous, albeit grotesque pace.  Of course, the government gets involved, theories of causes emerge, the town in New Jersey where it happens is first the scene of a media frenzy, and then quarantined - all the while the hapless senior class that is being afflicted by this tragedy is trying to figure out how to keep living and keep finding meaning in life.  Part of that search revolves around friendships, family, and the sweet romance between the main character and the quirky but nice young man, Dylan.

The challenge of this novel is where to go with it.  And in that I found it not as good as I hoped.  There is a bizarre character, FBI agent Carla Rosetti who by the end of the novel has gone strangely rogue.  There is a friend who's fate is a mystery - was her end a dream or did she escape or something else? There are many unanswered questions.  I didn't expect the novel to tie up all its loose ends, or have a happy ending, but it felt to me like the storyline simply got the best of the author who couldn't figure out a satisfactory ending and so let it just kind of fizzle out.

All in all, I'd recommend it to a student who wants a bizarre story and who won't mind finishing a book while still having a lot of unanswered questions.  Besides, the writing is fresh and interesting and the novel conjures up a lot of questions about mortality, meaning and how one should live in the face of imminent dangers - a parable for our own dangerous times, perhaps.

Civil Rights Sailors and the Big Explosion

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin
New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2014.
1st ed.
200 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

From the dynamic cover, to the epilogue - I loved this book.  It is an amazing story of unsung Civil Rights heroes who took against racism in the US Navy during WWII and helped force greater opportunities for African Americans in the military - and at great cost to themselves.

This book has all the elements of a great tale - a massive tragic explosion, tales of personal courage, rumors of a conspiracy, the suspense of a trial/court martial, and a positive but not rosy ending. And in telling the tale, Steve Sheinkin brings to life the stories of very young men who simply wanted to be given a fair opportunity to be part of the US war effort in WWII.

I really like this book for bringing together so many important threads - worker safety, segregation and racism during WWII (including extreme violence against enlisted African Americans in the south), the stirrings of the great Civil Rights movements of the 50s and 60s, the early career of Thurgood Marshall, and the ways in which change occurs in fits and starts through resistance and personal courage.  And it's all done in the relatively brief space of just over 160 pages (along with great photos and illustrations).

I would recommend this book to any student interested in WWII, disasters, the Civil Rights Movement, the military, and US history in general.
   

Ka-Boom!

Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Terre Haute, IN : Tanglewood, c2010.
466 p. ; 22 cm.

The picture at the top of this post should give you pause.  Yellowstone Park [shaded in green], the US national treasure of hot springs, geysers, mountains, lakes and wildlife is basically the crater - or caldera [large red boundary] of an incredibly massive supervolcano that last had a major eruption about 640,000 years ago.  Ok, 640,000 years ago is a long time, but the problem is that it will erupt again in the future - probably not in our lifetimes (but it could).   It is the unlikely, but theoretically possible event of such a nation-shattering (about 2/3 of the US would be significantly damaged) and world-altering volcanic event that starts Mike Mullin's first novel off with a bang.

The novel is set far away (hundreds of miles) from Yellowstone,  - in Iowa - but not far enough away to escape the devastating noise, ash and ejecta of the eruption.  The event creates a cataclysmic environment through which the hero of the novel - 17 year old Alex - seeks to survive as he heads east toward Illinois where his family is.  His ordeal through this landscape - one that brings to mind Cormac McCarthy's The Road -  forms the plot of this thrilling novel.

As you might imagine this new, altered world brings out the best and definitely the worst in people and institutions that Alex is exposed to.  A bright spot is his joining forces with a remarkable young woman, Darla, whose skills and courage help Alex survive.  Not surprisingly the two eventually fall in love, in a rather believable, and touching way. 

The novel should appeal to all kinds of readers.  There is disaster, survival, action, romance, and some gritty violence and tragedy.  I really appreciated how Mullin allows his novel to really delve into the complex ways that individuals and institutions can trend toward good - and definitely toward evil in situations of grave social disruption.  I could easily recommend this book.  We also recently acquired the sequel - Ashen Winter.