Before then, my world view was mostly school and my small neighborhood and friends. It was a transformational year in terms of my awareness of the world. When I revisited the bomb shelter 50 years later, it was a lot smaller than I remembered. It certainly stirs up long dormant memories and emotions-and it’s a bit of a reality check. How does it feel writing a book that has a historical setting in which you actual lived? In that case: Would there be time for me to run home from school before the bombs fell? And since everyone in town knew we had a bomb shelter, would others get there first and demand to be allowed in? What if my mother, brother, and I got inside and our neighbors came and wanted us to let them in? Many of my anxieties concerned the possibility that a war might start while my father was off at work in New York City, and therefore too far away to get home. Thus, I not only worried along with everyone else in our country about the very real possibility of a nuclear World War III, but I worried about trying to survive in our shelter as well. The book is part memoir and part speculative fiction, rooted in my experience as a twelve-year-old boy living through the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when our family was the only one in town with a bomb shelter.
We caught up with Strasser to chat about the book, his distinguished career, and his latest project.Ĭan you tell us more about your latest book, Fallout? School Library Journal calls it “a well-written, compelling story with an interesting twist on how history might have turned out.” Publisher Candlewick has even developed a discussion guide for the book that has direct correlations to the Common Core. His latest YA book Fallout (Candlewick, 2013) has received rave reviews from many outlets, including The Wall Street Journal. Todd Strasser has been on the children’s and YA literature scene for more than 30 years. Always an Original: SLJ Talks to ‘Fallout’ Author Todd Strasser
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