Following the amazing book "Bomb", Sheinkin is again capturing the readers' complete attention and emotion. This must read for all 5th graders to those in their 95th year will surely be on many state award short lists and hopefully national awards as well. Where will Sheinkin take his readers next?

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook copy of this title in exchange for my review.

This is a middle grade level history of the Cold War. I haven't read others by this author, but I will look for them in the future and recommend him to those with younger children. The writing style was engaging and the history seemed well researched, making for a page turner.

I thought I was going to read a fictional spy thriller. Fallout turned out so much better. The history to the Cold war is covered well. I grew up in the shadow of the bomb and was familiar with most of the events. I was thrilled with the details of things and the things I knew little or nothing about. This is a great account of what happened. I was very impressed with the bibliography that documented the sources for the account. I heartily recommend this book as an engaging and accurate account of the events. I hope young people will read it and gain perspective on real history. There are so many lessons here we should know about.

“Fallout” by Steve Sheinkin

You could call “Fallout” a sequel to Sheikin’s great book, “Bomb”, published in 2012. In “Fallout” Sheinkin writes about an amazing collection of the events leading up to and including the Cuban missile crisis. Much has been written about the subject but this book succinctly tells the story of the tumultuous events of the 50’s and 60’s that brought the world to the brink of total devastation.

“Fallout” is a quick read that seems more like a thriller novel but the reader never loses track of the grim reality that the world faced in 1962. The reader will hear how the bomb, the H bomb, spies, the space race, U2 spy planes, nuclear armed russian subs, and missiles in Cuba that were literally minutes away from being armed with devastating nuclear warheads all came together to nearly bring human civilization to its knees. Adding to all of this are stories of how incredible mishandling and incredible luck also played huge roles in this incredible story.

So much ground is covered, yet Sheinkin does not linger too long on any event. The writing is to the point, yet covers these events sufficiently. The book never becomes bogged down which left me waiting to see what might be revealed on the next page. It's a real page turner!

Five stars! This is a great book.

Thanks to NetGalley, I received an Advanced Reader Copy ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Solid secondary summary of the first half of the Cold War. Honestly, par for the course for Sheinkin.

Once again, Steve Sheinkin examines a complex topic and makes it clear, concise, and cogent with his thoroughly researched and documented narrative nonfiction. His latest book follows in the spirit of his award-winning Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Fallout examines the development of the hydrogen bomb and the arms race that followed, culminating with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Early chapters explain Nikita Khrushchev’s rise to power and Cold War espionage efforts by both the USSR and the USA. Soviet spy Rudolph Abel and American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers are examined in some depth, chronicling the eventual capture and conviction of the two, and the 1962 exchange of the two by the two world powers in Berlin. The importance of the divided city of Berlin in the Cold War is stressed, and Sheinkin introduces readers to a little-known hero: Harry Seidel, a former bicycle racer who risked his life to assist hundreds of East Berliners to escape across the Berlin Wall to freedom in the West. Closing chapters closely document the escalation of tension and fear that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the battle of wills between the wily Khrushchev and the young American president, John F. Kennedy. Sheinkin’s attention to small details and liberal use of quotes brings the characters and events to life and will engage both middle grade readers and adults in what may well have been the most dangerous conflict in the history of mankind. This outstanding work is a must purchase for both public and school libraries.

Sheinkin does it again. He makes learning about political intrigue fascinating! I could not stop talking about details of this book with family -- including those who were raising families during the Cold War. Some knew a few of the details Sheinkin includes, but no one had the breadth of knowledge I gained from reading Fallout. I especially love small insights that take just a few lines, but are so important for understanding the time and place... such as the timing of the first James Bond film being released with bombs on an island the major plot point at the same time as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ironic that so many have nostalgia for the "good old days" when you see how scary those days were.

This is a perfect example of what Steve Sheinkin does best - he delivers an exciting burst of history that pulls readers in by presenting a "fly on the wall" view instead of a barrage of facts and figures. WWII is at an end and soon Stalin will be gone which transitions the Soviet Union into a new threat for the Western world - communism. The U.S. and the Soviets are battling for a new frontier as they invent scary weapons, bigger bombs and develop the technology that will launch one of them into space first. Photographs are interspersed to cement what life was really like and put a human face to the uncertainty and fear. He adds anecdotes about people whose lives we know and also those behind the scene superstars so the reader has a well rounded view of what life was like. Adults, teens and of course middle grade readers will learn much and be thoroughly entertained. This would be my choice for a family road trip audiobook. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Absolutely fantastic!! If I had the budget I would be pre-ordering a set of these books for my school. Fallout follows the creation of the fusion bomb and the dramatic events of the Cold War (Berlin Wall, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis, spycraft and more.) Sheinkin's writing is easy for a middle-schooler to understand, but explains events that most adults didn't know (Did you know a black bear in Duluth, MN triggered an alarm to send off pilots with nuclear bombs?) If you liked Bomb by Steve Sheinkin, you will LOVE Fallout.

5 stars! Steve Sheikin knocks another one out of the atmosphere with Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. This book is listed as middle-grade children narrative non-fiction, but is as riveting and page-turning as any adult spy thriller. Chock-full of anecdotes about well-known people like Krushchev and Kennedy as well as top secret spies whose names you aren't familiar with, you'll never know how close we came to total world-wide total nuclear annihilation during the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Espionage on both sides during this time period, political statesmanship, and the humanity of the players involved are all exposed.

This is a tremendous follow to Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, and both are required reading for kids and adults.

Fallout contains all the intrigue of the times after WWII with the Soviet Union's growing grasp for power in the world. Having been a child during those rather scary times, I didn't always realize the depth of the issues and peril while it was happening, but Fallout makes it all come alive and connects the dots between our President Kennedy (and future presidents) and Soviet leaders. Action, secret missions, spies, and military operations are all connected in this very accessible and readable book. Sheinkin always makes nonfiction read like a great novel and Fallout does not disappoint. HIghly recommend for all school levels from higher elementary to high school.

Steve Sheinkin is an amazing author. I have enjoyed every nonfiction book he has written. Fallout is by far his best one yet. Focused on the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Sheinkin ferrets out the smallest details and weaves them into a complex yet surprisingly riveting story. The pace never slows down and gentle reminders are given for people who played a small part and may have gotten forgotten during reading. Sheinkin has a special knack with history!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an egalley for review. Steve Sheinkin does it again! While this is an incredibly complicated part of history, Sheinkin manages to parse out the narrative to make this whole convoluted, many layered piece of history into an easily followable, exciting narrative. Extensive source notes are included and pictures along the way help to entice readers into this complicated bit of American and World history.

As Steven Sheinkin did for "Bomb", which boiled down a complex and scary topic into a format that was not only highly readable, but highly educational, Fallout takes us to the years following World War II and the building tensions between the US and the USSR. Digging beyond typical textbook narratives about that time, Sheinkin brings the pivotal people to life as real men and women who were working to support or defeat the rise of Communism. Cuba comes into play, not only for the disastrous Bay of Pigs debacle, but also as a country trying to establish a new government under Castro. Both the US and USSR have an interest in swaying Castro into cooperating with their side. As nuclear weapons are developed and multiply, tensions increase, having a reliable spy network is paramount. After reading Sheinkin's work, the outcomes of the time seem based more on dumb luck than on any efficient spying network for either side. A highly readable book, "Fallout" allows readers to see how close we actually came to a full on nuclear war and the roles even ordinary citizens played in helping the US government gain the intelligence it needed to resist the Kremlin's plans. A must read.

It's rare to find a well-researched YA nonfiction book that is written so compellingly that it reads like a novel, without resorting to fictionalization. That's what Sheinkin does masterfully in Fallout. Obviously, I knew the end of the story. There's no spoiler in saying that the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't start World War III. But I still found myself wanting to know what would happen in each new chapter. Highly recommended not only for YA readers, but for others like me who were only toddlers when the crisis happened and who want to know about history that happened in our lifetimes.

This book is historical storytelling at it’s finest. Intense, short passages pull the reader along. If the reader didn’t know it was true, they’d assume they were reading a crime thriller by Dan Brown or John Grisham. For those of a certain age, this book fills in the gaps of all the things you didn’t learn in high school history. For young adult and middle grade readers, it provides an engaging read!

Steve Sheinkin should write the curriculum for history classes in American schools. This is another "I can't believe this really happened but it did." Of course I had a personal interest since I actually remember the duck and cover movies of the 60s, as well as the threats of Nikita Khrushchev. Shienken covers events of the Cold War from Gary Powers, the space race, and the Cuban Missile Crisis with details that put you in the days when it happened. We all came so close to being destroyed. All nonfiction should be this good.

Fallout by Steve Sheinkin is a captivating read about the major Cold War events. Sheinkin’s ability to make history engaging is superb. Can’t wait to share it with my students.

Sheinkin has done it again! He has a way of making history come to life and has managed to write a gripping page turner that chronicles a war that never happened. Fallout begins in the early 1950s engaging it's readers with stories of interesting spies and spy gadgets used in the Cold War and then moves into discussing superbombs, or hydrogen bombs, and some of the major Cold War events of the '50s and early '60s. I really appreciated the way that Sheinkin doesn't hesitate to focus his 20/20 hindsight vision on blunders made by high ranking US officials or clever plays by Soviet ones. Obviously, everything has bias, but after reading this book I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of major Cold War events up to and including the Cuban Missile Crisis. I never would have picked up a book on the subject normally, but when I saw Sheinkin had a new book out about the Cold War, I was suddenly very interested in the topic! I can not over emphasize how engaging and readable his books are.

My only complaint is that it wasn't longer. Fallout includes a lot of detail up to and including the Cuban Missile Crisis and then other highlights of the Cold War are all mushed into the epilogue. I suppose the title kind of explains that, that The Ultimate Cold War Showdown is the Missile Crisis and that's the focus of the book but I want to know what happened next in the same amount of detail!

Overall, thank you, Sheinkin, for another great book!

Steve Sheinkin's books are always fabulous and this was no exception. I always recommend his non-fiction books to teens and adults. I always learn from his books.