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Fallout
What if the bomb had actually been dropped? What if your family was the only one with a shelter?
In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott's dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott's dad can shut the door. With not enough room, not enough food, and not enough air, life inside the shelter is filthy, physically draining, and emotionally fraught. But even worse is the question of what will—and won't—remain when the door is opened again. Internationally best-selling author Todd Strasser has written his most impressive and personal novel to date, ruthlessly yet sensitively exploring the terrifying what-ifs of one of the most explosive moments in human history.
In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott's dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott's dad can shut the door. With not enough room, not enough food, and not enough air, life inside the shelter is filthy, physically draining, and emotionally fraught. But even worse is the question of what will—and won't—remain when the door is opened again. Internationally best-selling author Todd Strasser has written his most impressive and personal novel to date, ruthlessly yet sensitively exploring the terrifying what-ifs of one of the most explosive moments in human history.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2012
286 people are currently reading
3968 people want to read
About the author
Todd Strasser
222 books797 followersTodd Strasser is an American author of more than 130 novels for adults, young-adults, and middle graders.
His most recent novel is Summer of '69
Booklist review: "Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, those hallmarks of the summer of 1969, are all here, but there's so much more. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Strasser introduces 18-year-old Lucas, who is bright and sensitive but also a screw up…. The picture painted of the Woodstock music festival shows the dark side of peace and love, and the prevalence of drugs is on almost every page…The best part of the book, however, is the one that transcends eras: Lucas' introspection as he contemplates his place in the world."
Kirkus review: "Strasser perfectly captures the golden haze of youth and life on the cusp of adulthood. Readers fascinated with this time period will find much to enjoy... Vietnam, Woodstock, road trips, and acid trips: a sweetly bittersweet, surprising, even melancholy bildungsroman set against a world in flux. Groovy, man."
His most recent young adult novel is Price of Duty:
2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
“Compact and suspenseful, the novel raises important questions about war.” – Kirkus
“This thought-provoking book is both welcome and imperative.” – Booklist * (starred review).
"Rather than attempting to sway the reader, it offers awareness." - VOYA
“Tightly wound and compelling ... appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT: Highly recommended.” – School Library Journal
Bio: Todd was born in New York City. When he was young his parents moved to Roslyn Heights, New York (Long Island). Todd went to the I.U. Willets Elementary school and then attended the Wheatley School for junior high and high school. His best subjects were math and science. He also liked to read, but he had trouble with spelling and grammar, and didn't do well in English. His favorite sports were tennis, skiing and fishing. Todd went to college at New York University for a few years, and then dropped out. He lived on a commune, then lived in Europe where he was a street musician.
All the while, Todd wrote songs and poems and lots of letters to his friends back home. Finally he decided to try being a writer. He returned to the United States and went to Beloit College where he studied literature and writing.
After college, Todd worked at the Middletown Times Herald-Record newspaper in Middletown, New York, and later at Compton Advertising in New York City. In 1978, Todd sold his first novel, Angel Dust Blues. He used the money to start the Dr. Wing Tip Shoo fortune cookie company. For the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books.
Todd now divides his time between writing books and speaking at schools and conferences. When he's at home, he likes to spend time with his children and dog, Cooper. He still likes to play tennis and ski, but his favorite new sport is surfing.
His most recent novel is Summer of '69
Booklist review: "Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, those hallmarks of the summer of 1969, are all here, but there's so much more. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Strasser introduces 18-year-old Lucas, who is bright and sensitive but also a screw up…. The picture painted of the Woodstock music festival shows the dark side of peace and love, and the prevalence of drugs is on almost every page…The best part of the book, however, is the one that transcends eras: Lucas' introspection as he contemplates his place in the world."
Kirkus review: "Strasser perfectly captures the golden haze of youth and life on the cusp of adulthood. Readers fascinated with this time period will find much to enjoy... Vietnam, Woodstock, road trips, and acid trips: a sweetly bittersweet, surprising, even melancholy bildungsroman set against a world in flux. Groovy, man."
His most recent young adult novel is Price of Duty:
2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
“Compact and suspenseful, the novel raises important questions about war.” – Kirkus
“This thought-provoking book is both welcome and imperative.” – Booklist * (starred review).
"Rather than attempting to sway the reader, it offers awareness." - VOYA
“Tightly wound and compelling ... appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT: Highly recommended.” – School Library Journal
Bio: Todd was born in New York City. When he was young his parents moved to Roslyn Heights, New York (Long Island). Todd went to the I.U. Willets Elementary school and then attended the Wheatley School for junior high and high school. His best subjects were math and science. He also liked to read, but he had trouble with spelling and grammar, and didn't do well in English. His favorite sports were tennis, skiing and fishing. Todd went to college at New York University for a few years, and then dropped out. He lived on a commune, then lived in Europe where he was a street musician.
All the while, Todd wrote songs and poems and lots of letters to his friends back home. Finally he decided to try being a writer. He returned to the United States and went to Beloit College where he studied literature and writing.
After college, Todd worked at the Middletown Times Herald-Record newspaper in Middletown, New York, and later at Compton Advertising in New York City. In 1978, Todd sold his first novel, Angel Dust Blues. He used the money to start the Dr. Wing Tip Shoo fortune cookie company. For the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books.
Todd now divides his time between writing books and speaking at schools and conferences. When he's at home, he likes to spend time with his children and dog, Cooper. He still likes to play tennis and ski, but his favorite new sport is surfing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 641 reviews
October 29, 2020
So, I know this sounds macabre, but I'm drawn to apocalyptic fiction, particularly ones in which society falls apart, and ordinary people are forced to live extraordinary lives. In this alternate history, Scott and his family (and several unexpected guests) escape into a fallout shelter as Russia bombs America. It's 1962, and gender and race roles are very firmly drawn, with even the writing style reflecting this. Scott and fellow survivors need to suffer through two weeks of hunger, inadequate supplies, and each others' rather insufferable company, in order to go on to the next big challenge: leaving the bunker and seeing what can be scavenged of the world beyond.
So let's go back to those old-timey gender and race standards. To be fair, Scott (prompted by a teacher) does think rather critically about racism, and why societal attitudes toward his Black babysitter are not fair. But Scott is not a rocker-of-boats, and there are a lot of idiotic people down there in the shelter with him, shouting rather loudly that they need to kill their non-white counterparts in order to ration food. So that's great.
And then there are the female characters. Well, let's rewind. Scott's best friend is a "typical" male teenager who likes reading his father's porn magazines, and snapping girls' bra straps. The girls around their age group are quiet, little more than wallpaper, neither protesting or doing, well, much of anything. The women in the novel are no better. The most well-developed female character is Scott's mother, who suffers a serious injury at the beginning of the book, and is literally rendered mute. There's an especially cringe-inducing scene where Scott mentally assesses every woman with their breeding capabilities. GROSS.
So it's a very male-driven, white-driven alternate fantasy about America and surviving your own worst nightmares. I don't know. Why did I even give this novel three stars? I may have to rethink that. For fallout and post-nuclear fiction, I was happier reading End of the World Running Club, which takes the fallout shelter scenario and well, runs with it. Far more realistic and well-rounded all around.
So let's go back to those old-timey gender and race standards. To be fair, Scott (prompted by a teacher) does think rather critically about racism, and why societal attitudes toward his Black babysitter are not fair. But Scott is not a rocker-of-boats, and there are a lot of idiotic people down there in the shelter with him, shouting rather loudly that they need to kill their non-white counterparts in order to ration food. So that's great.
And then there are the female characters. Well, let's rewind. Scott's best friend is a "typical" male teenager who likes reading his father's porn magazines, and snapping girls' bra straps. The girls around their age group are quiet, little more than wallpaper, neither protesting or doing, well, much of anything. The women in the novel are no better. The most well-developed female character is Scott's mother, who suffers a serious injury at the beginning of the book, and is literally rendered mute. There's an especially cringe-inducing scene where Scott mentally assesses every woman with their breeding capabilities. GROSS.
So it's a very male-driven, white-driven alternate fantasy about America and surviving your own worst nightmares. I don't know. Why did I even give this novel three stars? I may have to rethink that. For fallout and post-nuclear fiction, I was happier reading End of the World Running Club, which takes the fallout shelter scenario and well, runs with it. Far more realistic and well-rounded all around.
January 23, 2016
My overall opinion of Fallout was, "ugh." I've never really liked Todd Strasser, but I especially didn't like this book. I wanted to abandon the main character less than halfway through, and I thought everyone in the book was a little farfetched. I also didn't like the message Strasser put out--that Russia could have and would have nuked the United States. Some of his descriptions and facts weren't exactly accurate (I've done research on this stuff) and the actions the main character, Scott, and his best friend went through seemed too old for kids who were around eleven or twelve. Even though this is set in the 1960s, I don't think any parent would allow their eleven-year-old son and his friend drink wine. So, I really didn't like Fallout. At all.
October 20, 2013
I really, really, really wanted to like this book. I love the concept: it is the 1960s and presents an alternate history whereupon the US and Soviet Union go to nuclear war as opposed to the near miss that happened in actuality. The chapters alternate back and forth from the time before the bomb dropped to life in the family's bomb shelter, but the way Strasser writes, this just seems disjointed and clunky as a narrative arc. As a pretty seasoned reader, I was able to negotiate these narrative shifts with some ease, but I would think younger readers might flounder a bit. There is no signal or directional for the reader: Strasser alternates and we, the readers, need to remember that.
The book imagines the worse case situation, which is really the strongest part of his story: one family, in a typically suburban neighborhood, builds a bomb shelter while the neighbors regards it with suspicion and scorn. But, when the bomb drops, where do you think they run to? How does the main family negotiate the unexpected guests? Who gets granted access and who doesn't? Two weeks is a long time to wait in an underground box, with dwindling food and water, and tempers flaring.
Strasser attempts to make this a coming-of-age novel too, but it just feels too forced. The main character, Scott, has a friend who is always one step ahead, whether with pranks, alcohol, lying, and breasts. Too much time is spent explaining how if life was to end tomorrow, then it would only feel right for an eleven-year-old boy to get a look at his own mother's breasts, for lack of other options. Time is also spent talking about Playboy magazines and how "every Father keeps one hidden", even alluding to a cover with a naked woman only wearing a necktie. The scenes with Shaws, the underage drinking, and Mr.Shaw reading his Playboy magazine in the middle of the living room, as if it was only a Life magazine, seem slightly lewd to me, and at the very least, gratuitous. Add to this a peepshow the author describes in the shelter, whether inadvertently (his unconscious mother's bare backside revealed or Mrs.Shaw letting her robe hang open and then strip completely naked to bathe in the middle of the bunker, without shame or regard or self-awareness of her own adolescent son just feet away). What he does is take a completely riveting idea, written at a middle-grade audience, and ruins it with out-of-place titillation that neither add to the story or reveals depth to any of the characters. Sounds to me like the author has some unresolved Freudian issues left over from childhood that he needs to work out with a shrink.
An author's note at the end reveals that his family had built a bomb shelter in 1962 and a picture shows him with his younger brother. His re-imaged memoir, as I take it, is a readable book and one that I was compelled to finish, just to see if the people in the shelter were going to make it. But, he finishes it so quickly and without a satisfying resolution, it is as if his imagination simply ran out. As if he could only imagine a world inside that shelter, but could provide nothing for his readers beyond that simple proposition.
The book imagines the worse case situation, which is really the strongest part of his story: one family, in a typically suburban neighborhood, builds a bomb shelter while the neighbors regards it with suspicion and scorn. But, when the bomb drops, where do you think they run to? How does the main family negotiate the unexpected guests? Who gets granted access and who doesn't? Two weeks is a long time to wait in an underground box, with dwindling food and water, and tempers flaring.
Strasser attempts to make this a coming-of-age novel too, but it just feels too forced. The main character, Scott, has a friend who is always one step ahead, whether with pranks, alcohol, lying, and breasts. Too much time is spent explaining how if life was to end tomorrow, then it would only feel right for an eleven-year-old boy to get a look at his own mother's breasts, for lack of other options. Time is also spent talking about Playboy magazines and how "every Father keeps one hidden", even alluding to a cover with a naked woman only wearing a necktie. The scenes with Shaws, the underage drinking, and Mr.Shaw reading his Playboy magazine in the middle of the living room, as if it was only a Life magazine, seem slightly lewd to me, and at the very least, gratuitous. Add to this a peepshow the author describes in the shelter, whether inadvertently (his unconscious mother's bare backside revealed or Mrs.Shaw letting her robe hang open and then strip completely naked to bathe in the middle of the bunker, without shame or regard or self-awareness of her own adolescent son just feet away). What he does is take a completely riveting idea, written at a middle-grade audience, and ruins it with out-of-place titillation that neither add to the story or reveals depth to any of the characters. Sounds to me like the author has some unresolved Freudian issues left over from childhood that he needs to work out with a shrink.
An author's note at the end reveals that his family had built a bomb shelter in 1962 and a picture shows him with his younger brother. His re-imaged memoir, as I take it, is a readable book and one that I was compelled to finish, just to see if the people in the shelter were going to make it. But, he finishes it so quickly and without a satisfying resolution, it is as if his imagination simply ran out. As if he could only imagine a world inside that shelter, but could provide nothing for his readers beyond that simple proposition.
April 7, 2014
4 1/2 stars, actually. I challenge any reluctant reader to be able to put this book down! But I would be cautious about which kids I recommend this book to. Besides the horror of the bomb actually being dropped, there is some other content involving Playboy, kids drinking wine, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this book though. It reminds me of the Life as We Knew It series.
September 13, 2015
Love Todd Strasser; this book-not so much. I kept reading because I thought something exciting and amazing was right around the corner. Sadly, it was not.
September 23, 2018
I read this one during my summer internship. It seemed like a short read that wouldn't be too heavy, and Fallout was just that!
I loved the premise. The Plot is set in 1962, where there is a huge risk of nuclear war. Scott's dad, Richard, is the only one in the neighborhood who builds a bomb shelter. The others are certain the worst won't happen - until it does. How everyone works together to brave the fallout is the rest of the story.
The book isn't large by any means, but it goes through a lot of scenarios where a person's humanity is put to the ultimate test. At many instances, people are forced to pick between what's right, and what'll help their survival. The characters are all relatable, each of the ones trapped in the bunker a synonym for real life characters. You also felt how their lives would never be the same after that day, which was all props to the writing.
Minor gripes included how I'd have liked more writing on the world above after the event, but besides that Fallout was a sublime read.
I loved the premise. The Plot is set in 1962, where there is a huge risk of nuclear war. Scott's dad, Richard, is the only one in the neighborhood who builds a bomb shelter. The others are certain the worst won't happen - until it does. How everyone works together to brave the fallout is the rest of the story.
The book isn't large by any means, but it goes through a lot of scenarios where a person's humanity is put to the ultimate test. At many instances, people are forced to pick between what's right, and what'll help their survival. The characters are all relatable, each of the ones trapped in the bunker a synonym for real life characters. You also felt how their lives would never be the same after that day, which was all props to the writing.
Minor gripes included how I'd have liked more writing on the world above after the event, but besides that Fallout was a sublime read.
September 19, 2013
It's 1962, the height of the Cold War, only in this alternative version of history, atom bombs actually go off. Eleven-year old Scott and his family seek safety in a home-made bomb shelter. Others, their neighbors without shelters of their own, try to get in. There's only enough emergency supplies for Scott's family. But these are their friends trying to save themselves, banging on the shelter door. From this heart-pounding beginning, the story unfolds in alternating chapters as Scott describes life trapped in the shelter and life before as they wait for radiation levels to go down enough so they can safely get out of there. Todd Strasser, the best-selling author of many young adult books, seems to effortlessly combine an entertaining and witty style with careful research and a sharp eye for details. It's the work of a master at the top of his skills. This provocative story is sure to stimulate young readers. Great for a history class or an English class.
September 11, 2016
this book has two different perspectives of one were the H-Bomb hit and they have to survive in their shelter under ground for a month, the other perspective is were the H-Bomb doesn't hit and they are very prepared for it to hit them.
September 26, 2016
Fallout is a fictional novel written by popular teen writer Todd Strasser. Fallout is a fictional book about a kid named Scott and his life in America during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book takes place in a suburban neighborhood in the United States of America. The plot of Fallout is a little confusing because every chapter switches between before the bomb went off and inside the shelter. Anyways, Scott is a young boy who lives in America during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Scott is a pretty typical ten year old boy, he goes to school and hangs around with his friends. At this time there are two types of people in his town. The people who build a bomb shelter because they are paranoid and people who have no fear of a nuclear attack from Russia. Scott’s father, a businessman, is one of the few smart enough to build a shelter. All of a sudden one later night there is a warning of a bomb coming to hit the United States. Scott and his family get into the shelter, but his mother falls coming down the ladder and is knocked unconscious. The rest of his friends decide they only have one option and that is to come down into the shelter. From there on the book is all about them struggling to survive in the bomb shelter made for four with twenty people.
The theme of Fallout by Todd Strasser is all about control. Throughout the story Scott’s father and Scott’s friends parents fight over control of the shelter. Todd Strasser includes this to show how important it is to learn to share power. This book is a very good example of how a learning to share power can decide between life and death. Todd Strasser uses a variation of simple and complex vocabulary words throughout the novel. The story is also told in first person and the narrator is ten years old so it is pretty easy to understand. There is not too much figurative language but every now and then you see some. Fallout was pretty fast paced, the book began with them going to the shelter so I always felt like something was happening. It was a little scary because Todd Strasser is very good at using descriptive language which makes you feel like you are experiencing the story with the characters. I think I can relate to the father because in the novel he was always aware of his surroundings and I feel like I am that way too. I don’t think the book was easy for me to relate to because we live in a world that is completely different now than it was then. I think the atmosphere is completely different and I’ve never been in a place or at a certain time where I thought I had a chance of dying. My favorite part of the book was when Scott went into the shelter, the tone of the book completely changes which made it very enjoyable for me. I don’t have a specific part of the book I disliked, but I didn’t like hod Todd Strasser changed time periods every chapter, it became a little confusing for me after a little while.
The only thing I would change with this book is the layout. Instead of having the chapter keep switching from before the bomb to in the shelter I would put it in chronological order. I believe Todd Strasser conveys the theme perfectly, it really ties into the plot. They all have to work together to survive which is is huge part of the book. I would recommend this book to all teenagers who have an interest in survival books. Most people that look at this book think it is historical fiction, but it really is not. So if you are considering you should definitely check it out.
The theme of Fallout by Todd Strasser is all about control. Throughout the story Scott’s father and Scott’s friends parents fight over control of the shelter. Todd Strasser includes this to show how important it is to learn to share power. This book is a very good example of how a learning to share power can decide between life and death. Todd Strasser uses a variation of simple and complex vocabulary words throughout the novel. The story is also told in first person and the narrator is ten years old so it is pretty easy to understand. There is not too much figurative language but every now and then you see some. Fallout was pretty fast paced, the book began with them going to the shelter so I always felt like something was happening. It was a little scary because Todd Strasser is very good at using descriptive language which makes you feel like you are experiencing the story with the characters. I think I can relate to the father because in the novel he was always aware of his surroundings and I feel like I am that way too. I don’t think the book was easy for me to relate to because we live in a world that is completely different now than it was then. I think the atmosphere is completely different and I’ve never been in a place or at a certain time where I thought I had a chance of dying. My favorite part of the book was when Scott went into the shelter, the tone of the book completely changes which made it very enjoyable for me. I don’t have a specific part of the book I disliked, but I didn’t like hod Todd Strasser changed time periods every chapter, it became a little confusing for me after a little while.
The only thing I would change with this book is the layout. Instead of having the chapter keep switching from before the bomb to in the shelter I would put it in chronological order. I believe Todd Strasser conveys the theme perfectly, it really ties into the plot. They all have to work together to survive which is is huge part of the book. I would recommend this book to all teenagers who have an interest in survival books. Most people that look at this book think it is historical fiction, but it really is not. So if you are considering you should definitely check it out.
September 1, 2013
It’s the early sixties and people are worried about the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviet Union, and communism. Scott’s dad does something no one else in their neighborhood is doing. He’s building a bomb shelter. This causes their family to receive strange looks and questions. Scott gets through the questioning and teasing, because the nation is going through a scary time and he believes in what his father is doing to protect them.
In reality, the crisis never happened, but in this novel it does. There’s a massive explosion and everyone rushes to the bomb shelter. Everyone also means the neighbors, but Scott’s family has to fend them off because there’s not enough food and supplies. Still, there are a few who push their way in. Scott is stuck for two weeks in the shelter with not just his family, but a few neighbors and friends. According to their radiation meter a nuclear explosion really did occur, and they’re not getting a radio signal.
The chapters go back and forth to the present in the shelter and the past with Scott’s friends, the building of the shelter, and safety drills at school. The past had the fear of destruction, but there was normalcy with Scott’s friends, their pranks, and their odd nicknames. The present was awful with the rationing of food, the bickering between adults, and the horror that awaited them on the other side. This was a tense read and an amazing page turner. There are a few things of a sexual nature that don't belong in this book which could have been deleted or toned down, so that's my only criticism. I highly recommend this. NetGalley provided a copy, courtesy of the publisher.
In reality, the crisis never happened, but in this novel it does. There’s a massive explosion and everyone rushes to the bomb shelter. Everyone also means the neighbors, but Scott’s family has to fend them off because there’s not enough food and supplies. Still, there are a few who push their way in. Scott is stuck for two weeks in the shelter with not just his family, but a few neighbors and friends. According to their radiation meter a nuclear explosion really did occur, and they’re not getting a radio signal.
The chapters go back and forth to the present in the shelter and the past with Scott’s friends, the building of the shelter, and safety drills at school. The past had the fear of destruction, but there was normalcy with Scott’s friends, their pranks, and their odd nicknames. The present was awful with the rationing of food, the bickering between adults, and the horror that awaited them on the other side. This was a tense read and an amazing page turner. There are a few things of a sexual nature that don't belong in this book which could have been deleted or toned down, so that's my only criticism. I highly recommend this. NetGalley provided a copy, courtesy of the publisher.
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March 5, 2018Fallout is a book that will make you think about how life used to be, how your great grandparents used to live growing up, and what they did as a kid without having technology. The author made the book very interesting where he made each chapter in different times one would be in present, and the other in the past. One chapter was the time before the bombs came down, and the other chapter being when Russia bombed the U.S. and how everybody was in grave danger. I thought this book was really good and exciting, and I do think I would read it again. This book was funny and had a “serious” feeling to it too, because it was in the mind of a little boy trying to understand what was/is going on around him. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes to know the character he/she is reading about before the climax comes.
June 28, 2013
A fascinating--and terrifying-- re-envisioning of the Cuban Missile Crisis told through the eyes of a 12 year old whose father was the only one in the neighborhood to preparefor nuclear war.
What if the crisis wasn't averted?
The bunker scenes are frightening--they would make a great play--like ANNE FRANK or 12 ANGRY JURORS. Multiple personalities struggling in close quarters.
Great tie-in with Z FOR ZECHARIAH.
What if the crisis wasn't averted?
The bunker scenes are frightening--they would make a great play--like ANNE FRANK or 12 ANGRY JURORS. Multiple personalities struggling in close quarters.
Great tie-in with Z FOR ZECHARIAH.
April 28, 2019
I think this book is a great book! I think the theme of this book is
"Better safe than sorry"
Because in the summer of 1962 everybody was scared about the soviets bombing America, and so the main characters dad builds a bomb shelter and everyone thinks he is crazy, but when the bomb drops...
"Better safe than sorry"
Because in the summer of 1962 everybody was scared about the soviets bombing America, and so the main characters dad builds a bomb shelter and everyone thinks he is crazy, but when the bomb drops...
January 20, 2014
I read this book after my 12 yr old recommended it. I found it to be interesting and very well written. I'm looking forward to more by this author and more recommendations from my young reader.
November 16, 2018
I started out liking this book, but as I kept reading it really messed with my mind. It's so depressing and really just sucks the hope out everything. I do not recommend this book at all.
July 1, 2013
Richie's Picks: FALLOUT by Todd Strasser, Candlewick, September 2013, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-5534-1
"Yes we're gonna have a wingding
A summer smoker underground
It's just a dugout that my dad built
In case the Reds decide to push the button down."
-- Donald Fagan, "The New Frontier"
"The Russians were evil. Their chubby bald-headed leader, Nikita Khrushchev, had crooked teeth and an ugly gap between the front two, which showed that Russians didn't even believe in orthodontia. And if that didn't make him anti-American enough, there was the time he'd come to the United Nations and banged his shoe on the rostrum, which proved beyond a doubt that the Commies were unpredictable, violent, and crazy enough to blow us all up."
"We'll break down these walls with our music and our art"
-- from a prayer during the opening ceremony at the Enchanted Forest transformational music and arts festival
I pause from my reading to watch some of the more talented dancers gyrating amidst the redwoods. It's early evening but, being just days beyond the solstice, it is still quite warm and there will still be light for at least another hour.
From my perspective, this is a young crowd. You really need to scan the scene closely to see those who might have been alive during the Summer of Love, no less recall the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There's one. A couple more over there, but not many.
It's a really relaxed vibe at this weekend festival in the northern California coastal hills. Officially a no-alcohol venue, the vast majority here are blissed out on pot and redwoods, friendships and frisbees, marathon dancing to the electronic music, and a killer, thrumming speaker system that is shaking the ground under me.
And here I sit, amidst the peaceful play of a young generation, reading a tense story directly related to what was the scariest aspect of my childhood -- the threat of nuclear war, and those air raid drills where you'd duck and cover under your school desk as if that would mitigate the effects of a nuclear bomb attack.
The world has made it this far, thanks to the negotiations that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis of my childhood. But in the alternative world in which Todd Strasser's FALLOUT takes place, the Cuban Missile Crisis does, in fact, lead to nuclear war.
"The metal rungs hurt the bottoms of my bare feet as I lower myself. The dark air in the shelter is cool and damp and smells like mildew. Suddenly boxes and bags of things shower down, bouncing off my head and arms, and falling into the shadows below. I cry out in surprise, even though it doesn't really hurt. Already Mom's feet are on the rungs just above me.
"'Hurry!' Dad yells.
"'Ow!' Sparky cries, and I wonder if Dad accidentally banged him into something as he tried to lower him through the trapdoor.
"One of my feet touches the cold concrete floor; the other steps on a box that collapses with a crunch.
''In there!' a man's voice shouts.
"Above me, Mom yells, 'Careful, Edward!'"
I knew how good FALLOUT was going to be when I found myself toying with the idea of putting it down at the end of the first chapter. By that point, it was already making me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Queasy, in fact.
Scott's father had a fallout shelter built under the addition to their home. It's the only one in the American neighborhood in which they live. When nuclear war breaks out, and Scott, his parents, and his little brother scramble to get down into the shelter, some neighbors who know about it break into their house and force their way into the shelter. The door is sealed and time below ground begins.
But the supplies that have been stockpiled in the shelter are only meant to support four lives, not this crowd. Thus, the two weeks that need to be spent in the shelter -- while the radiation levels outside decrease sufficiently to permit going out without assuredly dying -- provide an oft-ugly look at human nature when fear, hunger, claustrophobia, prejudice, and survival instincts all set in.
Told from Scott's perspective, the chapters in FALLOUT alternate between the preceding months, where we get to know these characters in their more normal states of being, and the days in the shelter that get more and more tense as the lack of food and supplies force decisions to be hammered out and permit our seeing a very dark side of humankind.
And what I'm thinking about, as I gaze across this crowd of beautiful young people, and think about my own children who are part of this generation, is how, fifty-one years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought us to the verge of nuclear war, there remain thousands of nuclear warheads in the world today. Sadly, the hatred in the world that divides countries and religious groups, combined with the existence of these weapons, assures us that the threat of nuclear war remains as ever-presently real now as it was back then.
"And when I really get to know you
We'll open up the doors and climb into the dawn"
-- Donald Fagan
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
"Yes we're gonna have a wingding
A summer smoker underground
It's just a dugout that my dad built
In case the Reds decide to push the button down."
-- Donald Fagan, "The New Frontier"
"The Russians were evil. Their chubby bald-headed leader, Nikita Khrushchev, had crooked teeth and an ugly gap between the front two, which showed that Russians didn't even believe in orthodontia. And if that didn't make him anti-American enough, there was the time he'd come to the United Nations and banged his shoe on the rostrum, which proved beyond a doubt that the Commies were unpredictable, violent, and crazy enough to blow us all up."
"We'll break down these walls with our music and our art"
-- from a prayer during the opening ceremony at the Enchanted Forest transformational music and arts festival
I pause from my reading to watch some of the more talented dancers gyrating amidst the redwoods. It's early evening but, being just days beyond the solstice, it is still quite warm and there will still be light for at least another hour.
From my perspective, this is a young crowd. You really need to scan the scene closely to see those who might have been alive during the Summer of Love, no less recall the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There's one. A couple more over there, but not many.
It's a really relaxed vibe at this weekend festival in the northern California coastal hills. Officially a no-alcohol venue, the vast majority here are blissed out on pot and redwoods, friendships and frisbees, marathon dancing to the electronic music, and a killer, thrumming speaker system that is shaking the ground under me.
And here I sit, amidst the peaceful play of a young generation, reading a tense story directly related to what was the scariest aspect of my childhood -- the threat of nuclear war, and those air raid drills where you'd duck and cover under your school desk as if that would mitigate the effects of a nuclear bomb attack.
The world has made it this far, thanks to the negotiations that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis of my childhood. But in the alternative world in which Todd Strasser's FALLOUT takes place, the Cuban Missile Crisis does, in fact, lead to nuclear war.
"The metal rungs hurt the bottoms of my bare feet as I lower myself. The dark air in the shelter is cool and damp and smells like mildew. Suddenly boxes and bags of things shower down, bouncing off my head and arms, and falling into the shadows below. I cry out in surprise, even though it doesn't really hurt. Already Mom's feet are on the rungs just above me.
"'Hurry!' Dad yells.
"'Ow!' Sparky cries, and I wonder if Dad accidentally banged him into something as he tried to lower him through the trapdoor.
"One of my feet touches the cold concrete floor; the other steps on a box that collapses with a crunch.
''In there!' a man's voice shouts.
"Above me, Mom yells, 'Careful, Edward!'"
I knew how good FALLOUT was going to be when I found myself toying with the idea of putting it down at the end of the first chapter. By that point, it was already making me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Queasy, in fact.
Scott's father had a fallout shelter built under the addition to their home. It's the only one in the American neighborhood in which they live. When nuclear war breaks out, and Scott, his parents, and his little brother scramble to get down into the shelter, some neighbors who know about it break into their house and force their way into the shelter. The door is sealed and time below ground begins.
But the supplies that have been stockpiled in the shelter are only meant to support four lives, not this crowd. Thus, the two weeks that need to be spent in the shelter -- while the radiation levels outside decrease sufficiently to permit going out without assuredly dying -- provide an oft-ugly look at human nature when fear, hunger, claustrophobia, prejudice, and survival instincts all set in.
Told from Scott's perspective, the chapters in FALLOUT alternate between the preceding months, where we get to know these characters in their more normal states of being, and the days in the shelter that get more and more tense as the lack of food and supplies force decisions to be hammered out and permit our seeing a very dark side of humankind.
And what I'm thinking about, as I gaze across this crowd of beautiful young people, and think about my own children who are part of this generation, is how, fifty-one years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought us to the verge of nuclear war, there remain thousands of nuclear warheads in the world today. Sadly, the hatred in the world that divides countries and religious groups, combined with the existence of these weapons, assures us that the threat of nuclear war remains as ever-presently real now as it was back then.
"And when I really get to know you
We'll open up the doors and climb into the dawn"
-- Donald Fagan
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
March 18, 2015
"Her sobs grow louder, and Mrs. Shaw hugs her and says it's going to be okay. But that can't be true. There's a nuclear war and Mom's bleeding and too many people are already in the shelter and more are trying to get in."
Wow.
Fallout was unsettling, but downright amazing!!
Alright, Fallout is a very unique book.
Has anyone heard of the Cold War? The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The arms race, where each side stocked up on weapons and missiles and bombs. The Cuban missile crisis, where the Russians put missiles into Cuba, aimed straight for the United States. The constant threat of war.
Only... nothing happened; no missiles, or explosives, or bombs were dropped.
Nothing happened...
...but...
...what if it did?
That is what Fallout is about.
Eleven year old Scott has heard about the threat of war all over. From his school, from his friends, and from his parents.
At school, a peculiar teacher makes Scott and his classmates question what exactly they believe about what is going on in history.
With his friends, Scott's friends make him steal and do bad things and get in trouble, because they constantly remind him that he very much could be dead the next day from an attack.
At home, Scott's parents argue endlessly, while Scott's father builds an underground bomb shelter. Everyone teases Scott's family, because they are overreacting. Their family seems to be the only one in the neighborhood that is building a bomb shelter. There's not going to be a bomb. Sure, everyone worries, but there'll never be a bomb.
But then, one night, the sirens are wailing. There's an attack! It is not a drill! This is the real thing! There is going to be a bomb after all!
Scott's family and two other families manage to get into the shelter, and they refuse to let anyone else in, for there is not enough room and supplies as it is. Scott's mom has fallen on the way down there, and is now severely injured, not responding to anyone. Some of the families are missing family members.
Now they're trapped down in that shelter, unable to go back up in fear that they will catch radiation poisoning. With limited supplies, little food, and gross water, everyone down there goes from scared to sick to completely hopeless. Some even nearly turn savage. It is scary for Scott.
"Dad points at the remaining cans on the shelf. 'I only stored enough food for four. Now we're ten. At this rate, we'll use it all up by the end of the first week.'"
How long will it be until they either die risking their lives by leaving and being exposed to the high levels of radiation, or die from starvation down in the dark shelter?
I really really liked Fallout for many reasons. First of all, it really gives you a clear understanding of what could have happened if America and Russia were to start dropping bombs. Just think how horrible that would have been. This is what it would have been like. I would have been terrified out of my mind.
Also, it is told from a young person's point of view. This shows people of how it was like during this period of time, when schools were ordered to do air-raid drills and kids overheard others talking about what could happen, and how they're probably going to die if something happens. I think it is brilliant, because it totally shows a new level of perspective and fear when thinking about what happened during the Cold War, and what very well could have happened.
"Dad tries the radio again: nothing.
'Could it mean the Russians won?' Ronnie asks.
'Nobody won,' mutters Mr. Shaw. 'We destroyed them, and they destroyed us.'"
I really love how the author, Todd Strasser was connected to this. His authors note in the back is amazing, and should be read once you finish the book, because it shows that people actually built shelters, and prepared for something like this. I really like his quote that he said in the back: "This novel can be read as a memoir, both of what happened during that time and of what I feared would happen."
Do you want to hear something funny?
I could not have read this book at a better time than I had.
Guess what I'm learning about in history class? That's right. The Cold War! It was so creepy, because as I'm in history class, my teacher is talking about stuff, such as Sputnik and the Cuban missile crisis, and about the bombs and missiles, and just everything about the Cold War. Meanwhile, I'm reading Fallout and then I stumble across one of these topics. I think: wait, my teacher was just talking about this... Oh my gosh!! It was awesome. I was learning and reading the same exact thing. It was awesome. I couldn't have picked a better time to read this!
Beautifully written, and a fantastic plot, Fallout was a shocking read, and it made me smile, tear up, and grow scared. It was a breath-taking book, and it was very unique. I love the whole alternative history idea. Brilliant!
"That night when Dad came in, I whispered, 'What'll happen if the Russians drop the bomb?'
He thought for a moment and then the wrinkles near his eyes deepened. 'It'll be the end, I'm afraid.'
'Of everything?'
He seemed to hesitate, then nodded."
Wow.
Fallout was unsettling, but downright amazing!!
Alright, Fallout is a very unique book.
Has anyone heard of the Cold War? The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The arms race, where each side stocked up on weapons and missiles and bombs. The Cuban missile crisis, where the Russians put missiles into Cuba, aimed straight for the United States. The constant threat of war.
Only... nothing happened; no missiles, or explosives, or bombs were dropped.
Nothing happened...
...but...
...what if it did?
That is what Fallout is about.
Eleven year old Scott has heard about the threat of war all over. From his school, from his friends, and from his parents.
At school, a peculiar teacher makes Scott and his classmates question what exactly they believe about what is going on in history.
With his friends, Scott's friends make him steal and do bad things and get in trouble, because they constantly remind him that he very much could be dead the next day from an attack.
At home, Scott's parents argue endlessly, while Scott's father builds an underground bomb shelter. Everyone teases Scott's family, because they are overreacting. Their family seems to be the only one in the neighborhood that is building a bomb shelter. There's not going to be a bomb. Sure, everyone worries, but there'll never be a bomb.
But then, one night, the sirens are wailing. There's an attack! It is not a drill! This is the real thing! There is going to be a bomb after all!
Scott's family and two other families manage to get into the shelter, and they refuse to let anyone else in, for there is not enough room and supplies as it is. Scott's mom has fallen on the way down there, and is now severely injured, not responding to anyone. Some of the families are missing family members.
Now they're trapped down in that shelter, unable to go back up in fear that they will catch radiation poisoning. With limited supplies, little food, and gross water, everyone down there goes from scared to sick to completely hopeless. Some even nearly turn savage. It is scary for Scott.
"Dad points at the remaining cans on the shelf. 'I only stored enough food for four. Now we're ten. At this rate, we'll use it all up by the end of the first week.'"
How long will it be until they either die risking their lives by leaving and being exposed to the high levels of radiation, or die from starvation down in the dark shelter?
I really really liked Fallout for many reasons. First of all, it really gives you a clear understanding of what could have happened if America and Russia were to start dropping bombs. Just think how horrible that would have been. This is what it would have been like. I would have been terrified out of my mind.
Also, it is told from a young person's point of view. This shows people of how it was like during this period of time, when schools were ordered to do air-raid drills and kids overheard others talking about what could happen, and how they're probably going to die if something happens. I think it is brilliant, because it totally shows a new level of perspective and fear when thinking about what happened during the Cold War, and what very well could have happened.
"Dad tries the radio again: nothing.
'Could it mean the Russians won?' Ronnie asks.
'Nobody won,' mutters Mr. Shaw. 'We destroyed them, and they destroyed us.'"
I really love how the author, Todd Strasser was connected to this. His authors note in the back is amazing, and should be read once you finish the book, because it shows that people actually built shelters, and prepared for something like this. I really like his quote that he said in the back: "This novel can be read as a memoir, both of what happened during that time and of what I feared would happen."
Do you want to hear something funny?
I could not have read this book at a better time than I had.
Guess what I'm learning about in history class? That's right. The Cold War! It was so creepy, because as I'm in history class, my teacher is talking about stuff, such as Sputnik and the Cuban missile crisis, and about the bombs and missiles, and just everything about the Cold War. Meanwhile, I'm reading Fallout and then I stumble across one of these topics. I think: wait, my teacher was just talking about this... Oh my gosh!! It was awesome. I was learning and reading the same exact thing. It was awesome. I couldn't have picked a better time to read this!
Beautifully written, and a fantastic plot, Fallout was a shocking read, and it made me smile, tear up, and grow scared. It was a breath-taking book, and it was very unique. I love the whole alternative history idea. Brilliant!
"That night when Dad came in, I whispered, 'What'll happen if the Russians drop the bomb?'
He thought for a moment and then the wrinkles near his eyes deepened. 'It'll be the end, I'm afraid.'
'Of everything?'
He seemed to hesitate, then nodded."
May 4, 2022
کتاب واقعا جذابی بود. اعصابم رو خرد کرد اما بسیار جالب بود. حقیقت اینه که خیلی واقعی نبود، چون بعیده بعد از انفجار بمب اتم بشه به این زودی از پناهگاه خارج شد یا حتی زنده موند، اما باز هم بهم دید جالبی داد. بعد از خوندن این کتاب متوجه شدم چیزهایی هست که باید درموردشون فکر کنم و درموردشون اطلاعات کسب کنم.
October 5, 2014
This was my second Todd Strasser book, after reading Boot Camp and not really enjoying it, I heard about this book which was at the time soon to be released, and grabbed a copy from my library.
So Fallout is set in 1962, and the threat of a nuclear war is high. The story follows Scott.
Scott and his family are the only people with a bomb shelter.
And then the unthinkable happens, a nuclear bomb went off.
A lot of things happen after that, a lot of it is really sad. But read it!!
The story follows two story lines, one being the time after the bomb went off and the other being the days/weeks before hand. The story alternates between these two story lines.
Okay so to me this was a really realistic book, because this COULD have happened, this could have been apart of history, but luckily is only fiction.
I think it is really easy to place yourself into Scott's shoes, even though he is only a kid, what happens in his life is something that many people could relate to, the dangers of war.
I think if I was ever faced with the issue of having a bomb shelter and other trying to get in, i have no idea what i would have done.
Scott's father is placed in a very difficult position, after , he becomes responsible for six additional people.
The difficult conditions they live in the shelter are pretty bad, urinating and defecating into a bucket, in front of everyone. Shedding clothes due to needing to wash, lack of food. And just being stuck with some pretty not nice characters.
In all, this was a very good book, i enjoyed it greatly. Strasser was able to turn a threat to reality. Its and easy read of a book, i read it in one sitting, then reread it. Because it was just so thought provoking. The way this novel is written it is easy to place yourself into their shoes and just imagine the harsh conditions they were living in.
I think this is a very worthwhile read.
:)
So Fallout is set in 1962, and the threat of a nuclear war is high. The story follows Scott.
Scott and his family are the only people with a bomb shelter.
And then the unthinkable happens, a nuclear bomb went off.
A lot of things happen after that, a lot of it is really sad. But read it!!
The story follows two story lines, one being the time after the bomb went off and the other being the days/weeks before hand. The story alternates between these two story lines.
Okay so to me this was a really realistic book, because this COULD have happened, this could have been apart of history, but luckily is only fiction.
I think it is really easy to place yourself into Scott's shoes, even though he is only a kid, what happens in his life is something that many people could relate to, the dangers of war.
I think if I was ever faced with the issue of having a bomb shelter and other trying to get in, i have no idea what i would have done.
Scott's father is placed in a very difficult position, after , he becomes responsible for six additional people.
The difficult conditions they live in the shelter are pretty bad, urinating and defecating into a bucket, in front of everyone. Shedding clothes due to needing to wash, lack of food. And just being stuck with some pretty not nice characters.
In all, this was a very good book, i enjoyed it greatly. Strasser was able to turn a threat to reality. Its and easy read of a book, i read it in one sitting, then reread it. Because it was just so thought provoking. The way this novel is written it is easy to place yourself into their shoes and just imagine the harsh conditions they were living in.
I think this is a very worthwhile read.
:)
December 28, 2016
DNF @ 50%
I kept pushing with this one, and you can see that since I made it (a little over halfway really) this far it wasn't terrible. BUT... the constant back and forth and back and forth just didn't really add to the story the way it could have with slow reveal. I think it would have gone better in a more linear fashion, but that's just me. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
It was an interesting scenario -- what if all the talk of nuclear war had been more than just talk? What if the bomb actually dropped?
It was really unrealistic though, imo, in the very beginning with neighbors trying to force their way into the shelter and causing a severe injury (potentially fatal) to one member of the family who's body broke the fall of a second member of the family (so potentially killing two people), and NO ONE SEEMS UPSET BY THIS AT ALL.
They, these assholes who didn't think to build their own bomb shelters and likely mocked this dad for his, shove their way into this shelter, critically injure the wife/mother, and proceed to bitch about EVERYTHING.
OHHHHH you didn't flush out the system after you had it installed??!?!? OHHHH WOOOOWWWW. WHY WOULDN'T YOU DO THAT? OH I SO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF ALL THESE ISSUES.
Oh would you? You asshole who didn't make any effort to secure the safety of your own family and are here LITERALLY ENDANGERING THE LIVES OF OTHERS WHO DID PREPARE not only by your existence, but by your violence and selfishness.
No THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING WITH US EVEN AFTER WE HAVE SERIOUSLY INJURED THE MOTHER OF YOUR CHILDREN. THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR LIMITED FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
Help plan it, help build it, help stock it, SURE. Come on in! Let's get through this together!
Maybe I'm just a bad person, but you break into my bomb shelter and injure my spouse or children I wouldn't need to be concerned about how we would make our food or water last the two weeks until it might be safe outside to not get radiation poisoning. You'll be dead and you'll be outside. :|
I kept pushing with this one, and you can see that since I made it (a little over halfway really) this far it wasn't terrible. BUT... the constant back and forth and back and forth just didn't really add to the story the way it could have with slow reveal. I think it would have gone better in a more linear fashion, but that's just me. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
It was an interesting scenario -- what if all the talk of nuclear war had been more than just talk? What if the bomb actually dropped?
It was really unrealistic though, imo, in the very beginning with neighbors trying to force their way into the shelter and causing a severe injury (potentially fatal) to one member of the family who's body broke the fall of a second member of the family (so potentially killing two people), and NO ONE SEEMS UPSET BY THIS AT ALL.
They, these assholes who didn't think to build their own bomb shelters and likely mocked this dad for his, shove their way into this shelter, critically injure the wife/mother, and proceed to bitch about EVERYTHING.
OHHHHH you didn't flush out the system after you had it installed??!?!? OHHHH WOOOOWWWW. WHY WOULDN'T YOU DO THAT? OH I SO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF ALL THESE ISSUES.
Oh would you? You asshole who didn't make any effort to secure the safety of your own family and are here LITERALLY ENDANGERING THE LIVES OF OTHERS WHO DID PREPARE not only by your existence, but by your violence and selfishness.
No THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING WITH US EVEN AFTER WE HAVE SERIOUSLY INJURED THE MOTHER OF YOUR CHILDREN. THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR LIMITED FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
Help plan it, help build it, help stock it, SURE. Come on in! Let's get through this together!
Maybe I'm just a bad person, but you break into my bomb shelter and injure my spouse or children I wouldn't need to be concerned about how we would make our food or water last the two weeks until it might be safe outside to not get radiation poisoning. You'll be dead and you'll be outside. :|
July 7, 2014
Every once in a while, there will be a day when I literally do not leave the house -- not for the mail, not for a walk, not for anything at all. By the middle of the next day, I am feeling fidgety and off-kilter, and escape the confines of this (large-ish) house by whatever means necessary.
There is a word for this feeling: cabin fever. It exists.
Now imagine being forced into an enclosed basement bomb shelter for an unknown time period, not only with your family but a few interlopers as well. This is where author Todd Strasser takes his readers in Fallout.
Intended for young readers (grades 5 to 8), Fallout takes place in a very small window of time during the 1960's, and imagines what might have happened if nuclear weapons had been engaged. The days just before and after the initial blast reflect the rising tension that even a bomb can not resolve -- there is tension in the country at large, but also within narrator Scott's circle of family and friends.
Unfortunately, there are so many plot lines, it seems that none of them come to any kind of point in the end -- they just fizzle out. One reviewer (with whom I agree) was annoyed with Ronny, Scott's best friend -- he does not seem to be a very well-developed character, and did not ring true as someone that Scott would hang out with.
Another point to consider was all of the "adult content" in the story. There is a scene where Scott is served several alcoholic drinks at a friend's house -- which, yes, is probably something that might happen in reality. Ronny himself is a bit obsessed with sex and naked women -- again, not probably unbelievable for this age range, but it just didn't add anything to the story except tawdriness.
This book was so close to real excellence, but it got a little lost on the way for me. Still, readers will enjoy the story -- I only caution parents to be aware of the "adult" issues that arise throughout Fallout.
There is a word for this feeling: cabin fever. It exists.
Now imagine being forced into an enclosed basement bomb shelter for an unknown time period, not only with your family but a few interlopers as well. This is where author Todd Strasser takes his readers in Fallout.
Intended for young readers (grades 5 to 8), Fallout takes place in a very small window of time during the 1960's, and imagines what might have happened if nuclear weapons had been engaged. The days just before and after the initial blast reflect the rising tension that even a bomb can not resolve -- there is tension in the country at large, but also within narrator Scott's circle of family and friends.
Unfortunately, there are so many plot lines, it seems that none of them come to any kind of point in the end -- they just fizzle out. One reviewer (with whom I agree) was annoyed with Ronny, Scott's best friend -- he does not seem to be a very well-developed character, and did not ring true as someone that Scott would hang out with.
Another point to consider was all of the "adult content" in the story. There is a scene where Scott is served several alcoholic drinks at a friend's house -- which, yes, is probably something that might happen in reality. Ronny himself is a bit obsessed with sex and naked women -- again, not probably unbelievable for this age range, but it just didn't add anything to the story except tawdriness.
This book was so close to real excellence, but it got a little lost on the way for me. Still, readers will enjoy the story -- I only caution parents to be aware of the "adult" issues that arise throughout Fallout.
January 9, 2018
What a messed up year for books this is so far. I've not finished multiple books that I gave a positive review to, but this first book I finished? I hated it.
Oh how I hated it.
Pat of the issue wasn't the book's fault: Who wants to read about a nuclear war happening while Trump is tweeting that his launch button is bigger than North Korea's is?
But much of my issues with it were the book's fault. What a joyless, frustrating, unpleasant story this was. It was the second oldest book on my Kindle, so I had long since forgotten what it was about. Based on the title, I figured it might be YA dystopian. Nope.
Set in 1962, a nuclear war happens. A man had planned ahead and made a shelter for his family, but before he could get everyone down there, neighbors showed up as well. His shelter had enough supplies for four people, but with the neighbors they had over a dozen people.
The book had alternating chapters, some leading up to the blast, the others after the blast.
It was just so very unpleasant reading about a dozen people trapped in a fallout shelter, short on food, water, no toilet, one of them badly injured. Two weeks of that... The adults (oh my god, so unpleasant), were fighting endlessly. The intelligent man was the most unpleasant of them all (which annoyed me).
Why did I keep reading it? Why did I finish it? I wanted to know how the author would end it. Would the people get out? What would they find? What would they do after?
But ugh, even the ending was annoying. Spoiler: They got out, but the book ended right there. And, after two weeks in the shelter, they ate the food that had survived the blast. Yes they were starving, but then what was the point of the whole thing? They suffered for two weeks, then were going to die from eating the radiated food.
Ugh. I was so angry about having read this book, I couldn't sleep after I finished it.
Oh how I hated it.
Pat of the issue wasn't the book's fault: Who wants to read about a nuclear war happening while Trump is tweeting that his launch button is bigger than North Korea's is?
But much of my issues with it were the book's fault. What a joyless, frustrating, unpleasant story this was. It was the second oldest book on my Kindle, so I had long since forgotten what it was about. Based on the title, I figured it might be YA dystopian. Nope.
Set in 1962, a nuclear war happens. A man had planned ahead and made a shelter for his family, but before he could get everyone down there, neighbors showed up as well. His shelter had enough supplies for four people, but with the neighbors they had over a dozen people.
The book had alternating chapters, some leading up to the blast, the others after the blast.
It was just so very unpleasant reading about a dozen people trapped in a fallout shelter, short on food, water, no toilet, one of them badly injured. Two weeks of that... The adults (oh my god, so unpleasant), were fighting endlessly. The intelligent man was the most unpleasant of them all (which annoyed me).
Why did I keep reading it? Why did I finish it? I wanted to know how the author would end it. Would the people get out? What would they find? What would they do after?
But ugh, even the ending was annoying. Spoiler: They got out, but the book ended right there. And, after two weeks in the shelter, they ate the food that had survived the blast. Yes they were starving, but then what was the point of the whole thing? They suffered for two weeks, then were going to die from eating the radiated food.
Ugh. I was so angry about having read this book, I couldn't sleep after I finished it.
May 13, 2014
So I'm incredibly confused. Why are people labeling this as middle grade?! While Fallout is told from the perspective of an eleven year old, I really don't know if this is on the same level of some of the other clearly marked middle grade books. And this is definitely not dystopian. This is apocalyptic, an alternate history if the Cuban Missile Crisis had not been averted and hydrogen bombs had been deployed.
The story begins with the kids being woken up and rushed to the family's bomb shelter. But they are the only house in the neighborhood with one and it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret so as the alarms blare, the neighbors try to force their way into the shelter. Told in alternating chapters, from the group slowly starving in the shelter and the events leading up to that event in the pre-bomb days, it is a riveting tale that keeps you engaged no matter how depressing it becomes.
Because that's just it. It's not a happy read. It's a good read, an excellent one. It raises some important questions about war, about survival, and families. And while the ending is a little bit hopeful, it is not a happy read. It is a very adult book that young adults could enjoy.
I really enjoyed how this wasn't even a post-apocalyptic novel. It takes place purely in the days leading up to and during the apocalypse. It was very refreshing to read this different kind of circumstance. The ending does not offer complete closure though it is was exactly the kind of ending I love, where things are a little open-ended but very poetic and poignant.
And as a bonus, the author's note with his own personal connection to the story was a great final touch. It certainly makes you grateful that at least that era of mutually assured destruction has passed.
The story begins with the kids being woken up and rushed to the family's bomb shelter. But they are the only house in the neighborhood with one and it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret so as the alarms blare, the neighbors try to force their way into the shelter. Told in alternating chapters, from the group slowly starving in the shelter and the events leading up to that event in the pre-bomb days, it is a riveting tale that keeps you engaged no matter how depressing it becomes.
Because that's just it. It's not a happy read. It's a good read, an excellent one. It raises some important questions about war, about survival, and families. And while the ending is a little bit hopeful, it is not a happy read. It is a very adult book that young adults could enjoy.
I really enjoyed how this wasn't even a post-apocalyptic novel. It takes place purely in the days leading up to and during the apocalypse. It was very refreshing to read this different kind of circumstance. The ending does not offer complete closure though it is was exactly the kind of ending I love, where things are a little open-ended but very poetic and poignant.
And as a bonus, the author's note with his own personal connection to the story was a great final touch. It certainly makes you grateful that at least that era of mutually assured destruction has passed.
June 30, 2014
Todd Strasser's Fallout almost reads like a short story. It starts with Scott and his family rushing to get down into their bomb shelter, as missile sirens sound. In this alternate history, the Cuban Missile Crisis leads to the bombing of the US. Scott's dad has stocked the shelter for the four of them for two weeks, but when the alarms sound, two uninvited neighbor families force their way into the shelter, too. The story spans only a couple weeks and focuses on the dynamics of these survivors with shortages of air, space, food, water and patience or tolerance of others. Strasser uses flashbacks to paint a picture of suburban life in the 60s, a time rife with racial discrimination and political tensions with the USSR.
I struggled with the rating for two reasons. The story is well written and much like The Christmas Story or The Sandlot, the narrator is an 11-year-old boy dealing with all the things any boy of 11 would. The back story of conversations with Scott's teacher lays out the political situation while side stories of Scott and his friend, Ron getting in to trouble all add to the picture. I understand what Strasser was trying to do in a very small snapshot. I have to wonder if the story were to be read by a early teen, would the story be cohesive enough.
I do recommend the book for parents who may want to read with their kids. Caution: there are scenes with nudity, bodily functions, Playboy and under-aged drinking. I think they were handled well, but some parents may want to read ahead rather than be surprised by discussions about centerfolds, breasts and homosexuality.
I struggled with the rating for two reasons. The story is well written and much like The Christmas Story or The Sandlot, the narrator is an 11-year-old boy dealing with all the things any boy of 11 would. The back story of conversations with Scott's teacher lays out the political situation while side stories of Scott and his friend, Ron getting in to trouble all add to the picture. I understand what Strasser was trying to do in a very small snapshot. I have to wonder if the story were to be read by a early teen, would the story be cohesive enough.
I do recommend the book for parents who may want to read with their kids. Caution: there are scenes with nudity, bodily functions, Playboy and under-aged drinking. I think they were handled well, but some parents may want to read ahead rather than be surprised by discussions about centerfolds, breasts and homosexuality.
December 28, 2015
Everyone in the neighborhood made fun of Scott's dad when he started building the bomb shelter. Sure, everyone knows the threat of the Russians, but it would be mutually assured destruction--so while the Russians COULD destroy the US, they definitely WOULDN'T.
Until the night they do. The October night when Scott's dad wakes him up and ushers the whole family into the bomb shelter--and then tries in vain to hold the door shut against the neighbors who are also trying to get in. The shelter was only stocked with enough food and supplies for two weeks for four people, but it suddenly needs to stretch to ten. With no clocks or watches, there's no sense of how long they've been down there, or how much longer they'll need to stay. Four kids and six adults, one of whom is nearly comatose from a head injury falling down the ladder into the shelter. In such close quarters, with little food and no privacy, tempers flare: fear, racism, despair, anger.
I kept waiting for this to resolve in some kind of misunderstanding of the circumstances, some sort of Donnie Darko plane-crashed-into-the-house thing, but ... no. This is the real deal. This is claustrophobic and stuffy in a visceral way. Bad things have actually, legitimately happened. I'd love to see what happens next, what the aftermath is like for Scott and the others. But that's a different story, one we don't get here and can only imagine at.
Will be passing this along to my middle-schoolers, possibly paired with SA Bodeen's The Compound.
Until the night they do. The October night when Scott's dad wakes him up and ushers the whole family into the bomb shelter--and then tries in vain to hold the door shut against the neighbors who are also trying to get in. The shelter was only stocked with enough food and supplies for two weeks for four people, but it suddenly needs to stretch to ten. With no clocks or watches, there's no sense of how long they've been down there, or how much longer they'll need to stay. Four kids and six adults, one of whom is nearly comatose from a head injury falling down the ladder into the shelter. In such close quarters, with little food and no privacy, tempers flare: fear, racism, despair, anger.
I kept waiting for this to resolve in some kind of misunderstanding of the circumstances, some sort of Donnie Darko plane-crashed-into-the-house thing, but ... no. This is the real deal. This is claustrophobic and stuffy in a visceral way. Bad things have actually, legitimately happened. I'd love to see what happens next, what the aftermath is like for Scott and the others. But that's a different story, one we don't get here and can only imagine at.
Will be passing this along to my middle-schoolers, possibly paired with SA Bodeen's The Compound.
August 13, 2013
A very different kind of story from Strasser, this one was very easy to get through, encouraging readers on with its short chapters and flowing storytelling. Scott narrates in alternating chapters between the recent past and the present in 1962 when the US was struggling with Communism around the globe and fearful of a nuclear attack.
Scott's dad has built a bunker and an event scares them into the bunker with others, though no one was prepared for the stress they will be under until they decide to go back out and see whether an incident truly occurred.
The stories themselves are fast-paced and almost a little hurried but you get a picture of life back then, between girls, motives, politics, and neighbor. There is some quirkiness as well with the injury to Scott's mother immediately after entering the bunker and the relationships between the individuals trapped down there. It reminded me at times of an Anne Frank-like situation where Scott is trying to be positive in the face of adversity. And of course, though the ending is known to older generations of readers, students might actually enjoy the bit of mystery but understanding the sense of doom that was scared in to everyone during that time.
Scott's dad has built a bunker and an event scares them into the bunker with others, though no one was prepared for the stress they will be under until they decide to go back out and see whether an incident truly occurred.
The stories themselves are fast-paced and almost a little hurried but you get a picture of life back then, between girls, motives, politics, and neighbor. There is some quirkiness as well with the injury to Scott's mother immediately after entering the bunker and the relationships between the individuals trapped down there. It reminded me at times of an Anne Frank-like situation where Scott is trying to be positive in the face of adversity. And of course, though the ending is known to older generations of readers, students might actually enjoy the bit of mystery but understanding the sense of doom that was scared in to everyone during that time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2014
It was fitting to read this, as earlier this week, I read "Tofu Quilt" about a Chinese girl growing up in the 60's, then "Hokey Pokey" about growing up, then "Countdown" about an 11-year-old during the Cuban Missile Crisis... and Fallout is also about an 11-year-old during the Cuban Missile Crisis! Both deal with issues of growing up during October, 1962... however, "Fallout" imagines what would happen if a bomb HAD been dropped on us... and one particular family has the only bomb shelter in the neighborhood.
I liked "Countdown" much better, and would recommend it to kids over "Fallout". They not only would learn a whole lot more history (I'm thinking if you didn't give a little background information before reading Fallout, some kids would get confused on what really happened), but scenes in Fallout seem a little too lewd to be included in a YA book, in my opinion. I know we see Scott learning through experiences and deciding for himself what it is to be a good person... but I don't think that necessitated all the talk about naked mothers. Maybe the author has some Freudian issues he needs to clear up with a good psychologist. I know had I had read that as an 11-14 year old, I'd have been horrified!
I liked "Countdown" much better, and would recommend it to kids over "Fallout". They not only would learn a whole lot more history (I'm thinking if you didn't give a little background information before reading Fallout, some kids would get confused on what really happened), but scenes in Fallout seem a little too lewd to be included in a YA book, in my opinion. I know we see Scott learning through experiences and deciding for himself what it is to be a good person... but I don't think that necessitated all the talk about naked mothers. Maybe the author has some Freudian issues he needs to clear up with a good psychologist. I know had I had read that as an 11-14 year old, I'd have been horrified!
September 10, 2015
Fallout, by Todd Strasser is about a young boy who lived in the time when the only thing anyone could think about, was “I could be dead tomorrow.” It was 1962, when the threat of a nuclear war was always hanging overhead. And the only one in the neighborhood who was prepared for the worst was Scott’s dad. Even though the neighbors thought it was pointless, Scott’s dad built a bomb shelter and stocked it with just enough supplies for his family. But when the time comes, and the bomb’s actually do drop, everyone rushes to the shelter even though it’s only meant for one family. This is an electrifying tale about how the families survive and the struggles they face. I think that this book was well written but I did not like how it was told. Some of the topics it covered, I felt were completely irrelevant, and I did not like the ending. The story was told through the eyes of Scott, who is a 13 year old boy. And being a girl, I didn’t like the way the author described some things. I would recommend this book to 7th - 9th grade BOYS. Because it doesn’t reach out to girls, and the way the story is told it neglects the girl’s side and opinion. Overall it was an well written book with a good plot but I felt that it was not meant for me.
May 18, 2017
Fallout (By:Todd Strasser) review:
Fallout is during the summer of 1962 and involves a young boy named Scott and his friends who are all haunted by the idea that they could be dead in a day because of a nuclear bomb. Scott‘s dad is always preparing for the worst such as a nuclear war. He built a bomb shelter and filled it with the things necessary for his family to survive. In the middle of the night the area they live in is attacked and everyone. Because Scott‘s dad was the only one who prepared people ran towards their shelter.
I do not think that this book belongs in the sci-fi genre it is more of a realistic fiction. I think this because most sci-fi’s are more like star wars or ghosts. Whereas this book is more of something that could happen in real life. When I think of sci-fi i think of star wars. But when I think of realistic fiction I think of something more like Because of winn dixie. This book is more like because of winn dixie to me.
I thought this book was boring because I don’t really like sci-fi in general and I didn’t like the way the author describes things. I would definitely recommend this book to adults with a longer attention span because it gets very serious and boring at times. So if you are looking for a book that is very serious and interesting.
Fallout is during the summer of 1962 and involves a young boy named Scott and his friends who are all haunted by the idea that they could be dead in a day because of a nuclear bomb. Scott‘s dad is always preparing for the worst such as a nuclear war. He built a bomb shelter and filled it with the things necessary for his family to survive. In the middle of the night the area they live in is attacked and everyone. Because Scott‘s dad was the only one who prepared people ran towards their shelter.
I do not think that this book belongs in the sci-fi genre it is more of a realistic fiction. I think this because most sci-fi’s are more like star wars or ghosts. Whereas this book is more of something that could happen in real life. When I think of sci-fi i think of star wars. But when I think of realistic fiction I think of something more like Because of winn dixie. This book is more like because of winn dixie to me.
I thought this book was boring because I don’t really like sci-fi in general and I didn’t like the way the author describes things. I would definitely recommend this book to adults with a longer attention span because it gets very serious and boring at times. So if you are looking for a book that is very serious and interesting.
January 3, 2016
I read this book because I wanted to be able to discuss it with a student who was reading it in my middle school English class. This student is often a reluctant reader but read this book within a week and enjoyed it. So, keep that in mind when I say that I was not impressed with the story.
The book is an alternative history relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the possible immediate consequences if Russia had chosen to bomb the U.S. Although I found the premise interesting, I think it might be confusing for students who know very little about this period in history. Additionally, I couldn't really relate to some of the characters and relationships in the story. I was constantly wondering more about characters' back stories or asking myself why certain characters were friends. I was also disappointed in what I found to be a rather abrupt ending that didn't seem to resolve the conflicts in the story. I did appreciate the personal notes on the inspiration for the story found in the author's note at the end of the book, but I think some suggestions for age appropriate non-fiction reading on this subject would have also been great.
The book is an alternative history relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the possible immediate consequences if Russia had chosen to bomb the U.S. Although I found the premise interesting, I think it might be confusing for students who know very little about this period in history. Additionally, I couldn't really relate to some of the characters and relationships in the story. I was constantly wondering more about characters' back stories or asking myself why certain characters were friends. I was also disappointed in what I found to be a rather abrupt ending that didn't seem to resolve the conflicts in the story. I did appreciate the personal notes on the inspiration for the story found in the author's note at the end of the book, but I think some suggestions for age appropriate non-fiction reading on this subject would have also been great.
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