"Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin

I'm on the record as being a big fan of non-fiction, so I tried to not let that bias my opinion of Bomb: The Race To Build - And Steal - The World's Most Dangerous Weapon.  So from a completely neutral point of view, without any personal taste entering into my judgment, I'm going to go ahead and say that Bomb is super rad and everybody will like it.

Ok, maybe not everybody.  Just everybody who is into action, adventure, suspense, science, history, spies, or explosions.

When non-fiction is good, it's electrifying.  It makes the reader want to go back to the shelf and grab every book on the same topic.  And unlike fiction (in my experience anyway) once you've read a good piece of non-fiction on a subject you're willing to read stuff on the same subject that might not be quite as well-written or magnetic, just as long as you can somehow manage to get more information into your brain about whatever it is you've become interested in.

Which is exactly my personal goal as a librarian.  To create the self-motivation in others to read more and learn more.  I think Bomb does that.  The writing is tight and digestible, but still meaty enough to be educational.  The narrative is succinct and easy to follow, but it doesn't dumb its subject down.  Steve Sheinkin used to be a textbook writer and it shows (in a good way); his prose is well-crafted to not outshine his subject.

Sheinkin also does a great job of coming at the subject from multiple points of view, and of not hovering too long over a particular aspect of the narrative and thus causing the pace to slow.  Everything moves at a fairly steady clip.

However, in spite of all the things I just said about the subject matter and the writing style, Bomb is probably a bit lengthy to be used as a tool for engaging reluctant readers.  Certain individual chapters (like the one about the Norwegian mission to sneak into a Nazi research facility and blow it up) could be used to that effect, though.  As a whole, I think this book could be used to open young adults up to non-fiction if they're already reading, and it definitely could be recommended to kids who are already into non-fiction who are just looking for a new topic to explore.