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THE GADGET Paul Zindel Paperback Laurel Leaf | Juvenile Fiction | February 2003 | $5.50 | 0-440-22951-0 | Ages 12 up

Stephen Orr is only 13 years old when he witnesses bombs falling in clusters over the city of London. It is 1945 and the world is at war. Stephen’s father, an important scientist for the United States government, has requested that Stephen join him in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he is conducting top-secret scientific research bearing the code name The Gadget. The mystery surrounding his father’s work is intriguing to Stephen, and he is determined to find out about the project. Along the way, he is almost kidnapped by a group of men dressed as monks, and he makes the startling discovery that the boy that he thought was his friend is indeed the son of a Russian spy. When Stephen finally discovers the mystery of The Gadget, he finds that his father is the key to the one thing that will help the United States end the war. But his most difficult discovery is the devastating reality of his father’s work.

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Prepared by Pat Scales, Director of Library Services, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities, Greenville, SC

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