The Green Glass Sea — Ellen Klages

It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father -- but no one, not her father nor the military guardians who accompany her, will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos, New Mexico, she learns why: he's working on a top secret government program. Over the next few years, Dewey gets to know eminent scientists, starts tinkering with her own mechanical projects, becomes friends with a budding artist who is as much of a misfit as she is -- and, all the while, has no idea how the Manhattan Project is about to change the world. This book's fresh prose and fascinating subject are like nothing you've read before.
Everyone who deals with middle-grade kids -- parents, teacher, librarians -- is busy answering questions about a movie they have heard so much about, but are too young to see. Green Glass Sea will answer their questions and more.