And Then the Sky Exploded

Ninth-grader Christian Deaver learns his great-grandfather was part of the team that built the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War II. During a school trip to Japan, he meets a Hiroshima survivor and tries to make amends. But what can one teenager do?

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2018 Red Maple Award — Shortlisted • High Plains Book Award — Shortlisted, Young Adult category
When Christian learns his great-grandfather helped build the A-bombs dropped on Japan, he wants to make amends … somehow.


While attending the funeral of his great-grandfather, ninth-grader Christian Larkin learns that the man he loved and respected was a member of the Manhattan Project, the team that designed and created the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during the Second World War.


On a school trip to Japan, Chris meets eighty-one-year-old Yuko, who was eleven when the first bomb exploded over Hiroshima, horribly injuring her. Christian is determined to do something to make up for what his great-grandfather did. But after all this time, what can one teenager really do? His friends tell him it’s a stupid idea, that there’s nothing he can do. And maybe they’re right.


But maybe, just maybe … they’re wrong.