SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: www.stevesheinkin.com/
CITY: Saratoga Springs
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 350
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 13, 1968, in Brooklyn, NY; married; wife’s name Rachel; children: two.
EDUCATION:Attended Syracuse University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Previously worked as a teacher, history textbook author, and for the National Audubon Society.
AWARDS:YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, American Library Association, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, and Beacon of Freedom Award, all 2010, all for The Notorious Benedict Arnold; National Book Award finalist, Robert F. Sibert Award, YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, Best Book selection, Bank Street College of Education, and Newbery Medal Honor Book selection, all 2013, all for Bomb; National Book Award finalist, and Carter G. Woodson Book Award, 2015, both for The Port Chicago 50; National Book Award finalist, for Most Dangerous.
WRITINGS
The Notorious Benedict Arnold was adapted for audiobook, read by Mark Bramhall, Listening Library, 2012.
SIDELIGHTS
A former teacher, Steve Sheinkin worked for several years writing history textbooks, and in his research he encountered a treasure trove of fascinating facts, quotes, gossip, and stories. Although he could not incorporate them into the dry, chronology-driven texts demanded by educational publishers, Sheinkin filed away the best of these discoveries for future use. When he turned to writing his own books, these little-known facets of history were revealed, resulting in a series of highly acclaimed books that include King George: What Was His Problem?, Neil Armstrong and Nat Love, Space Cowboys, Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights, and Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. Showcasing Sheinkin’s skill as an illustrator, his “Rabbi Harvey” graphic novels mix Jewish traditions with wild-west adventures, while his graphic-novel collaboration with writer Ilan Stavans on El Iluminado presents a “fascinating history of Crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest,” according to Booklist contributor Francisca Goldsmith. Sheinkin is also the author of the popular “Time Twisters” series of children’s books.
(open new1)In an interview in Shelf Awareness, Sheinkin told Lana Barnes that he found it “exciting” to tell nonfiction stories to younger readers. He admitted that “the research, the nerdy detective work, is actually fun. Kids often accuse me of doing homework for a living, and I admit it. But the thing is, I get to pick the assignment, and that makes all the difference. The hardest part is figuring out how to work the needed background information into a story without killing the momentum.”(close new1)
Originally published as The American Revolution, King George covers frequently overlooked events from the colonial period of U.S. history, from colonial soldiers who fought the Redcoats while naked to frank accounts of the men and women who stood shoulder to shoulder behind the nation’s Founding Fathers. According to Booklist critic Carolyn Phelan, Sheinkin’s “vivid storytelling makes [King George] an unusually readable history book.”
Sheinkin returns to the early history of the United States in The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery, which he described on his home page as a “nonfiction action/thriller based on many years of research, and travels to all the places Arnold lived, fought, and drove his fellow Americans crazy.” Beginning an illustrious military career by capturing Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, then aiding the invasion of French-controlled Canada and establishing the continental army’s first naval fleet, General Arnold changed allegiances following the Battle of Saratoga two years later. Frustrated that he was passed over for promotion due to ill-founded accusations by others, he secretly spied for the British and planned to surrender his current post, at West Point, to the King’s Army. His scheme was revealed, however, when compromising documents were found on captured British attaché, Major André.
Noting that in The Notorious Benedict Arnold, Sheinkin “adopts a more serious tone” than is characteristic of his work, Betty Carter added in Horn Book that the book contains “a gripping introduction” as well as scenes of political machinations and betrayals that will “both chill and compel” readers. “The slow transformation of a fearless fighter into a resolute traitor will intrigue,” predicted Pam Carlson in Voice of Youth Advocates, while a Kirkus Reviews critic maintained that Sheinkin’s “lively prose and abundant use of eyewitness accounts make this one of the most exciting biographies young readers will find.”
The fractious mid-nineteenth century is Sheinkin’s focus in Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You about the Civil War, a book full of “lively, interesting anecdotes,” according to Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman. In addition to providing unusual details about the presidencies of James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln, the author also shares stories about the women and African Americans who fought in the pivotal Civil War. Calling Two Miserable Presidents a “very readable effort,” School Library Journal reviewer Mary Mueller also cited Sheinkin’s mix of “clear prose, objectivity, and good organization,” adding that the book’s “stories and quotes … will make historical figures real to readers.”
The assassination of the sixteenth president of the United States did not end his story, as readers learn in Lincoln’s Grave Robbers. During the Civil War era, the counterfeiting of currency was a major problem in both northern and southern states. Shortly after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and his body laid to rest, a gang of Chicago counterfeiters hit upon a clever scheme. If they could dig up the president’s corpse from its gravesite in Oak Ridge, Illinois, and hide it in some nearby sand dunes, they could use it as leverage to win the release of one of their colleagues, a man currently behind bars. When the newly organized U.S. Secret Service received news of this scheme, most agents dismissed it as outlandish, but one man took it seriously. An informant was planted in the gang of thugs and he passed along news of the progress being made, right up to the plot’s unsuccessful end.
Lincoln’s Grave Robbers “is sure to pique the interest of many readers,” asserted Randall Enos in Booklist, the critic predicting that “Sheinkin’s gripping narrative will hold them to the thrilling climax.” “The caper resembles a true crime episode from the Keystone Cops,” commented Carter in reviewing the work for Horn Book, while a Publishers Weekly critic maintained that Sheinkin’s “meticulous and tremendously suspenseful account of the attempted heist of Abraham Lincoln’s body in 1876 reads like a smartly cast fictional crime thriller.”
Moving forward to the twentieth century in his award-winning Bomb, Sheinkin paints the dynamic history of one of the most transformational discoveries of modern warfare. His setting is first Germany, where in late 1938 laboratory chemist Otto Hahn observed that exposure to radioactivity caused uranium atoms to split in half. Recognizing the implications of this discovery, scientists in the United States at Los Alamos, New Mexico, as well as in Great Britain, Soviet Russia, and Norway, where Nazi Germany was at work developing “heavy water”—water enriched with a hydrogen isotope containing a neuron—worked on applying this knowledge for use in a nuclear device. While governments on the verge of a second world war raced to be the first to develop an atomic bomb, spies and saboteurs were also busy. “Sheinkin focuses his account with an extremely alluring angle,” yet “maintains the pace of a thriller without betraying history … or skipping over the science,” asserted Roger Sutton in his positive review of Bomb for Horn Book. A Kirkus Reviews critic cited the author’s “prodigious research and storytelling skill,” ranking the nonfiction work “a superb tale of an era and an effort that forever changed our world.”
In 2015 Sheinkin released Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War. This volume profiles Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers, documents that shed light on the machinations surrounding the Vietnam War. In an article that appeared in Horn Book, Sheinkin discussed the process of writing the book: “Writing Most Dangerous was a new experience for me, in that it was the first time I’d researched a story in which many of the central figures were still alive. And I knew I couldn’t do justice to the story without talking to Daniel Ellsberg. That turned out to be pretty hard.” Sheinkin eventually was able to interview Ellsberg and his wife, Patricia Marx, and he gleaned valuable details for the book.
A Kirkus Reviews critic asserted that Most Dangerous is “easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers.” “This is a detailed but fast-paced and fascinating narrative,” commented Katherine Noone in Voice of Youth Advocates. Booklist reviewer Kara Dean described the book as “powerful and thought-provoking.” Writing in Horn Book, Martha V. Parravano remarked: “Sheinkin … has an unparalleled gift for synthesizing story and bringing American history to life; here, he’s outdone even himself.” “Most Dangerous draws readers into this pivotal moment in American history,” suggested Kevin Delecki in BookPage. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote: “On the fortieth anniversary of the evacuation of Saigon, the book’s themes still resonate.”
Sheinkin presents a story about discrimination and overcoming odds in Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team. In an interview with Jon Little, contributor to the online version of BookPage, Sheinkin described Thorpe’s difficult life: “From the start, his Native heritage—Pottawatomie on his mother’s side, Sac and Fox on his father’s—was a central part of his life. As a young kid in what was then Indian Territory, he literally watched some of the Oklahoma land rushes, as the government opened Native American land to settlers. And he was later sent to a series of Indian boarding schools. All of this must have shaped the way he saw himself, though it’s not something he talked about publicly. In terms of how non-Native people saw him, that was pretty simple. He wasn’t white.” Thorpe attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where he began playing football under coach Pop Warner. Thorpe ultimately led his team to championships and participated in the 1912 Olympics in the track and field competitions. Sheinkin also told Little: “At heart, Undefeated is about Jim Thorpe and his teammates taking on enormous obstacles, on and off the field. I feel like once readers get to know the characters, and what they’re up against, it’ll be easy to start rooting for them.”
Reviewing Undefeated in Voice of Youth Advocates, Jane Van Wiemokly praised “Sheinkin’s evocative writing, which brings to life events at the Indian schools.” “Brief, action-packed chapters evince Sheinkin’s consistently multi-layered approach,” asserted Patrick Gall in Horn Book. Michael Cart, a critic in Booklist, commented: “This is a model of research and documentation, as well as of stylish writing that tells an always absorbing story.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the book as “superb nonfiction that will entertain as it informs.”
Born to Fly: The First Women’s Air Race Across America, featuring illustrations by Bijou Karman, chronicles the 1929 race featuring all-female pilots, including Amelia Earhart. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews asserted, “Fascinating prose, a large number of period photographs augmented by Karman’s illustrations, and outstanding backmatter round out an engaging and enlightening presentation.”
In his self-illustrated companion stories The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West and Rabbi Harvey Rides Again: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Folktales Let Loose in the Wild West, Sheinkin combines the history of the American West with traditional Jewish teachings. The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey finds the newly arrived Rabbi Harvey, a religious leader educated on the East Coast, sharing bits of wisdom with the inhabitants of Elk Springs, Colorado, and eventually earning the trust and respect of the townspeople. In Rabbi Harvey Rides Again the well-liked teacher out-thinks several local ne’er-do-wells by using teachings from the Talmud. Reviewing The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey in Publishers Weekly, a critic predicted that “kids of all ages will love Harvey’s sugary wisdom and wit,” and Kliatt contributor Jennifer Feigelman called the volume “a truly excellent tome that people of any faith will enjoy.”
Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler is the first book in Sheinkin’s “Time Twisters” series, which mixes historical information with fantastical details. In this volume, Lincoln visits a contemporary classroom, where he expresses disappointment in kids’ disinterest in history. Two children, Doc and Abby, are in the classroom when Lincoln visits. In retaliation Lincoln goes back in time and tries to become a pro wrestler instead of president. “Sheinkin seems to be having fun with the concept … and readers are likely to enjoy this, too,” commented Karen Cruze in Booklist. A Kirkus Reviews critic described the book as “a silly story that weaves in a fair amount of history.”
Another installment in the series, Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean, finds the former First Lady becoming a pirate to prove that she is not as boring as she is depicted in history books. Doc and Abby travel back in time to witness her exploits at sea. Eric Carpenter, reviewing the volume in Horn Book, remarked that “Sheinkin expertly slips a plethora of interesting facts and true events into the narratives.” Doc and Abby return in Amelia Earhart and the Flying Chariot. In this book, they encounter the aviation pioneer and time travel with her to Ancient Greece. “Sheinkin creates a graceful blend of true history and outrageous adventure,” asserted a Publishers Weekly writer.
(open new2)Fallout is the follow-up to 2012’s Bomb. The book starts in 1953 and covers the figures that were connected to the Cuban missile crisis. Sheinken begins with the Eisenhower and Stalin governments and takes readers through to the Kennedy and Khrushchev governments, outlining the major shifts and subtle changes that culminated in the crisis. The book also discusses espionage and spying, the science of hydrogen bombs, the way Americans reacted to the threat of attack on home soil, and even cryptography.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that although the frequent shift between characters, time, and places might “make it hard for some readers to follow at times, but the adventurous tone will capture and sustain their interest.” Writing in School Library Journal, Enca Ruscio suggested that teen readers “who love history such as Marc Favreau’s Spies and historical fiction like Jennifer Nielsen’s A Night Divided won’t be able to put this one down.”(close new2)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2008, Hazel Rochman, review of Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You about the Civil War, p. 44; August 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of King George: What Was His Problem?, p. 66; October 15, 2010, Karen Cruze, review of The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery, p. 43; December 15, 2012, Francisca Goldsmith, review of El Iluminado, p. 36; January 1, 2013, Randall Enos, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, p. 84; June 1, 2015, Sarah Hunter, review of The Notorious Benedict Arnold, p. 86; August 1, 2015, Kara Dean, review of Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, p. 50; December 1, 2016, Michael Cart, review of Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team, p. 39; September 1, 2017, Julia Smith, review of Undefeated, p. 96; November 15, 2017, Karen Cruze, review of Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler, p. 54.
BookPage, October 1, 2015, Kevin Delecki, review of Most Dangerous, p. 30; February 1, 2017, Jon Little, review of Undefeated, p. 31.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, January 1, 2013, Elizabeth Bush, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, p. 262.
Children’s Bookwatch, July 1, 2008, review of King George; August 1, 2008, review of Two Miserable Presidents.
Horn Book, July 1, 2008, Betty Carter, review of King George, p. 473; January 1, 2011, Betty Carter, review of The Notorious Benedict Arnold, p. 115; November 1, 2012, Roger Sutton, review of Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, p. 127; January 1, 2013, Betty Carter, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, p. 108; September 1, 2015, Martha V. Parravano, review of Most Dangerous, p. 131; March 1, 2016, Jonathan Hunt, review of Most Dangerous, p. 116; January 1, 2017, article by author, p. 46; March 1, 2017, Patrick Gall, review of Undefeated, p. 110; March 1, 2018, Eric Carpenter, review of Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean, p. 97.
Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2008, review of King George; October 1, 2010, review of The Notorious Benedict Arnold; August 1, 2012, review of Bomb; November 1, 2012, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers; July 15, 2015, review of Most Dangerous; November 15, 2016, review of Undefeated; November 1, 2017, review of Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler; July 1, 2019, review of Born to Fly: The First Women’s Air Race Across America; July 15, 2021, review of Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown.
Kliatt, January 1, 2007, Jennifer Feigelman, review of The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West, p. 33.
Publishers Weekly, July 24, 2006, review of The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey, p. 43; November 19, 2012, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, p. 58; July 13, 2015, review of Most Dangerous, p. 70; December 2, 2015, review of Most Dangerous, p. 82; October 23, 2017, review of Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler, p. 81; May 6, 2019, review of Amelia Earhart and the Flying Chariot, p. 62.
School Library Journal, December 1, 2005, Steven Engelfried, review of The American Revolution, p. 172; October 1, 2008, Mary Mueller, review of Two Miserable Presidents, p. 175; October 1, 2012, Brian Odom, review of Bomb, p. 159; January 1, 2013, Patricia Ann Owens, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, p. 134; August 4, 2021, Betsy Bird, “Steve Sheinkin Returns!: A Deep Dive into the Fallout;” September 1, 2021, Enca Ruscio, review of Fallout, p. 118.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December 1, 2010, Pam Carlson, review of The Notorious Benedict Arnold, p. 461; April 1, 2013, Pam Carlson, review of Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, p. 688; August 1, 2015, Katherine Noone, review of Most Dangerous, p. 88; April 1, 2017, Jane Van Wiemokly, review of Undefeated, p. 76.
ONLINE
Adventures of Rabbi Harvey Series website, http://www.rabbiharvey.com/ (August 24, 2009), series profile.
Advice to Writers, https://advicetowriters.com/ (January 18, 2022), author interview.
Author Turf, https://authorturf.com/ (November 7, 2014), author interview.
BookPage, https://bookpage.com/ (January 17, 2017), Jon Little, author interview.
Harvard University website, https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/ (May 30, 2017), author interview with Gretchen Woelfle and Barbara Kerley.
Horn Book, https://www.hbook.com/ (November 11, 2012), Martha V. Parravano, author interview.
International Literary Association website, https://www.literacyworldwide.org/ (September 14, 2012), author interview.
PJ Library website, https://pjlibrary.org/ (October, 2016), author interview.
Shelf Awareness, https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ (September 10, 2021), Lana Barnes, author interview.
Steve Sheinkin website, http://www.stevesheinkin.com (April 19, 2022).
ABOUT
Steve Sheinkin
photo: Erica Miller
You know the part about the textbook writing (full confession on file here). So let’s move on to other stuff about me.
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, and my family lived in Mississippi and Colorado before moving back to New York and settling in the suburbs north of New York City. As a kid my favorite books were action stories and outdoor adventures: sea stories, searches for buried treasure, sharks eating people… that kind of thing. Probably my all-time favorite was a book called Mutiny on the Bounty, a novel based on the true story of a famous mutiny aboard a British ship in the late 1700s.
I went to Syracuse University and studied communications and international relations. The highlight of those years was a summer I spent in Central America, where I worked on a documentary on the streets of Nicaragua.
After college I moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for an environmental group called the National Audubon Society. Then, when my brother Ari graduated from college a few years later, we decided to move to Austin, Texas, and make movies together. We lived like paupers in a house with a hole in the floor where bugs crawled in. We wrote some screenplays, and in 1995 made our own feature film, a comedy called A More Perfect Union (filing pictured below), about four young guys who decide to secede from the Union and declare their rented house to be an independent nation. We were sure it was going to be a huge hit; actually we ended up deep in debt.
After that I moved to Brooklyn and decided to find some way to make a living as a writer. I wrote short stories, screenplays, and worked on a comic called The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey. In 2006, after literally hundreds of rejections, my first Rabbi Harvey graphic novel was finally published.
Meanwhile, I started working for an educational publishing company, just for the money. We’d hire people to write history textbooks, and they’d send in their writing, and it was my job to check facts and make little edits to clarify the text. Once in a while I was given the chance to write little pieces of textbooks, like one-page biographies or skills lessons. “Understanding Bar Graphs” was one of my early works. The editors noticed that my writing was pretty good. They started giving me less editing to do, and more writing. Gradually, I began writing chapters for textbooks, and that turned into my full-time job. All the while, I kept working on my own writing projects.
In 2008 I wrote my last textbook. I walked away, and shall never return. My first non-textbook history book was King George: What Was His Problem? – full of all the stories about the American Revolution that I was never allowed to put into textbooks. But looking back, I actually feel pretty lucky to have spent all those years writing textbooks. It forced me to write every day, which is great practice. And I collected hundreds of stories that I can’t wait to tell.
These days, I live with my wife, Rachel, and our two young kids in Saratoga Springs, New York. We’re right down the road from the Saratoga National Historical Park, the site of Benedict Arnold’s greatest – and last – victory in an American uniform. But that’s not why I moved here. Honestly.
Steve Sheinkin
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Steve Sheinkin
Steve Sheinkin 2019 Texas Book Festival.jpg
Sheinkin at the 2019 Texas Book Festival
Steve Sheinkin is an American author of suspenseful history books for young adults. A former textbook writer, Sheinkin began writing full-time nonfiction books for young readers in 2008. His work has been praised for making historical information more accessible.[1]
Contents
1 Rabbi Harvey
2 Awards & honors
3 Select bibliography
4 References
Rabbi Harvey
Sheinkin has written and illustrated three fictional graphic novels about Rabbi Harvey, a fictional Jewish rabbi who also functions as an Old West sheriff, using Jewish rabbinical wisdom to solve problems usually solved with firearms in the fictional Rocky Mountain town of Elk Spring, Colorado. The books, which were published through Jewish Lights Publishing, consist of The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey, Rabbi Harvey Rides Again, and Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid.[2] The eclectic stories, which combine Jewish legends and frontier legends, sprung from Sheinkin's own eclectic childhood as a Jewish-American boy raised on both Jewish folktales and American Westerns. The character of Rabbi Harvey also contains elements of the author's own father, David Sheinkin.[3]
Awards & honors
Sheinkin's nonfiction books, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon[4] and The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights,[5] were both National Book Award finalists. In 2013, Bomb also won the Newbery Honor and Sibert Medal from the American Library Association. The Port Chicago 50 won the Carter G. Woodson Book Award in 2015.[6] His 2015 book, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, was also a finalist for the National Book Award, and was called “easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers.[7]
Select bibliography
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown, Roaring Brook Press, 2021
Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America, Roaring Brook Press, 2019
Time Twisters series
Neil Armstrong and Nat Love, Space Cowboys, Roaring Brook Press, 2019
Amelia Earhart and the Flying Chariot, Roaring Brook Press, 2019
Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean, Roaring Brook Press, 2018
Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler, Roaring Brook Press, 2018
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team, Roaring Brook Press, 2017
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War, Roaring Brook Press, 2015
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights, Roaring Brook Press, 2014
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery, Square Fish, 2013
Lincoln's Grave Robbers, Scholastic Press, 2013
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, Roaring Brook Press, 2012
Which Way to the Wild West? Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion, Flash Point, 2009
Two Miserable Presidents, Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War, Square Fish, 2008
Rabbi Harvey graphic novel series
Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid: A Graphic Novel of Dueling Jewish Folktales in the Wild West, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2010
Rabbi Harvey Rides Again: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Folktales Let Loose in the Wild West, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2008
The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Wisdom and Wit in the Wild West, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution, Flash Point, 2005
A former textbook writer, Steve Sheinkin is now making amends by writing history books that kids and teens actually want to read. His award-winning nonfiction books include FALLOUT, BOMB, UNDEFEATED, THE PORT CHICAGO 50, MOST DANGEROUS, THE NOTORIOUS BENEDICT ARNOLD, LINCOLN'S GRAVE ROBBERS, and BORN TO FLY. His chapter book series, TIME TWISTERS, is a history/comedy mash-ups - just another way to make history come alive for readers. Steve lives with his family in Saratoga Springs, NY.
ATW INTERVIEWS
Steve Sheinkin
January 18, 2022
How did you become a writer?
When I was about thirteen, my younger brother and I decided to be a famous filmmakers. We wrote short comedy sketches, which we videotaped. I watched some recently. The acting is awful, and don’t ask about the production value, but a few of the ideas are pretty funny. We went on to write and direct a feature film called A More Perfect Union in our early twenties. A total flop, and it left us deep in debt, but I’ve never learned so much so quickly.
Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).
Mostly Mr. Linderman. We’re talking fourth or fifth grade. He’d tell these stories that, in my memory, lasted for weeks. The stories were from Greek mythology, the Odyssey, that kind of thing—but it was all new to me. I’ll never forget the feeling of wonder and excitement as he began a new tale. I’m not saying I can recreate that in my writing, but it’s worth trying.
When and where do you write?
I’m lucky to get to do this as my job. So I’m in my office all day almost every day, either researching, writing, or revising. Pretty unromantic, I guess, but it’s way better than the dozens of crummy jobs I’ve had over the years.
What are you working on now?
I’m adapting one of my nonfiction books, Bomb, into a graphic novel. It’s a great experience, since I started by dreaming of screenplays, and comics and film are so similar. Plus, I get to make up dialogue, which you obviously can’t do in nonfiction.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
Sure, mainly in terms of how to quickly explain something. For years I worked as a textbook writer. I know, it’s terrible. I apologize to kids all the time. So now, when I’m trying to introduce a complex concept that young readers may not know much about, I’m terrified of writing something that could be in a textbook. I get stuck on this all the time, and have found no solution other than the classic clunky first draft + revision.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
I think Tim Gunn gave great writing advice on Project Runway. I mean, he was talking about fashion, but I heard it as writing advice. He’d look at one piece and say, “Turn up the volume.” Then he’d look at another piece and say, “You already have one ‘wow’ factor, you don’t need another.” The balance between those two reactions—that’s what I’m going for.
What’s your advice to new writers?
There’s no magic formula. Just start. Write a terrible first draft, step away, and then revise. Then show it to a trusted reader without comment. Listen to their feedback, especially if they feel that something in the draft was either slow or unclear. Then revise again. There may be a faster way, but I haven’t found it.
Steve Sheinkin is the author of young adult nonfiction books including Fallout, Bomb, Undefeated, Most Dangerous, and The Port Chicago 50. Awards include a Newbery Honor and three National Book Award finalists. Steve lives in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Steve Sheinkin Returns! A Deep Dive Into the FALLOUT
AUGUST 4, 2021 BY ELIZABETH BIRD
For those of you unaware, for a long time Steve Sheinkin and I had a weird reciprocal relationship. He would create Walking and Talking interview comics based on actual rambling conversations with other authors and I would post them on this blog. They must have taken a ton of energy for him, and I was more than happy to reap the rewards. Well, Steve hadn’t been creating any new ones lately (the last was an early pandemic piece with Candace Fleming) so I wondered what he was up to. The answer is being released this year on September 7th. It’s called FALLOUT: SPIES, SUPERBOMBS, AND THE ULTIMATE COLD WAR SHOWDOWN and like his other multi-award winning books it promises to be a hoot. Here’s the description:
New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents a follow up to his award-winning book Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, taking readers on a terrifying journey into the Cold War and our mutual assured destruction.
As World War II comes to a close, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the two greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. After the United States showed its hand with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the Soviets refuse to be left behind. With communism sweeping the globe, the two nations begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim deep below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night.
The Cold War game grows more precarious as weapons are pointed towards each other, with fingers literally on the trigger. The decades-long showdown culminates in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world’s close call with the third—and final—world war.
Who could resist? Naturally, I had some questions for the man:
Betsy Bird: Steve! So good of you to join me back on the old blog. But enough with the pleasantries, let’s dive right in. How did you come to decide to write this book? Was this something that came naturally out of BOMB (which is to say, it was planned from the start) or was it more of a surprise to you?
Steve Sheinkin
Steve Sheinkin: This is a follow-up to BOMB, but not really a planned one. FALLOUT comes from my love of spy stories, and the Cold War is the golden age of high stakes spy drama. Once I got that far, a Cold War spy thriller, I realized I could use a similar style and structure to what I did in BOMB, the mix of science, espionage, and politics, with quick cuts between scenes all over the world. Basically, this is the kind of the story that makes me want to keep writing narrative nonfiction.
BB: I’ve noticed that often your books hinge on particular individuals and their personal stories. Who are the people that FALLOUT focuses on?
SS: Yeah, I like really big stories told through small details and individual people, famous and unknown alike. I have that mix in FALLOUT. You’ve got Kennedy and Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, but you’ve also got a thirteen-year-old paperboy who stumbles into a Soviet spy ring in Brooklyn, a British woman in Moscow who operates as an MI-6 courier while pushing her kids around in a stroller, a young Soviet submarine officer who probably saved the world, an East German cyclist who turns his talents to digging escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall. A cast of thousands!
BB: I know some authors for whom the research is their favorite part of the process. Physically pulling themselves away from research can be a struggle. Does that describe you or are you capable of saying, like the man in the bar, “I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough”?
SS: Some of both, I guess. The research is definitely the fun part, the chance to play nerdy detective. But I always have a timeline in mind, a deadline for a finished manuscript, and I know that I need half of that time for writing and revising. Really, pulling myself away from the research is hard not because research is so fun, but because starting a first draft is so miserable. I know the first couple weeks are going to go badly, and nothing’s going to sound as cool as it does in my head, and I’m going to get frustrated and discouraged. You’d think I’d have figured out a way around this by now, but I guess it’s just part of the process.
BB: I hear that. Happens to the best of us. Now, too often we think of the period of the Cold War coming on the heels of WWII. We forget about the later years. I, for one, have clear-as-crystal memories of doing drills under my desk in the 80s and discussing the possibility of “the bomb” falling on us while at sleepovers with my friends. What amount of time does your book cover? And how did you come to decide the amount of history you were covering?
SS: Yes, same here. As a cynical high schooler in the 80s, I drew comics about hydrogen bombs, World War III, that kind of thing. Funny stuff! I was particularly infuriated by this idea of MAD – mutually assured destruction. I remember thinking, “Is that really what adults have come up with?” But as far as FALLOUT goes, the focus in on the really scary part of the Cold War, the late 1950s and early 1960s. In just a few years you’ve got both sides developing hydrogen bombs and the rocket technology to deliver them, the American U-2 shot down over Russia, the Bay of Pigs, Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis… that’s the heart of my story.
BB: Well, as a former Child of the 80s, I know I’m terrified. But while kids today have loads to worry about, nuclear war doesn’t tend to be one of them. So what, to your mind, is it about FALLOUT that’s going to attract their interest in particular?
SS: Mostly, I hope it’s an exciting story to read. We’ve talked about this over the years—we need to get nonfiction out of the health food aisle! I have this technique I’ve developed over the years, a way to test a new idea. I’ll picture myself in the scariest place on Earth: a school stage in front of 300 middle schoolers.
Okay, go. Try to hold their attention for 45 minutes, or an hour.
I’ll imagine telling them a true story from history, something I found in my research. Is it working? Are most of them with me? If so, I’m onto something. If I can find a bunch of stories like that, and fit them into one narrative, I’ve got a potential book. That’s how FALLOUT is built. Is it a nice bonus that you learn a bunch of stuff your teachers want you to know? Sure, definitely. My main goal, though—well, there are two. To tell a good story, and to make the reader curious to find out more.
BB: Sorry, I’m still stuck on that nightmare scenario of standing in from of 300 kids for an hour. *shudder* Let’s switch the subject to something more appealing. Tell me why the Epilogue is called “Choose Your Own Ending”.
SS: That’s a way of saying the story is still going, that you guys, the readers, are in it, and will be become the main characters in the near future. The Cold War is over, but we’re stilling living in the world it made. In the summer of 1962, as things were really heating up, Kennedy said, “Ever since the longbow, when man had developed new weapons and stockpiled them, somebody has come along and used them. I don’t know how we escape it with nuclear weapons.” We still haven’t really solved that problem.
BB: What didn’t make the final cut? What did you have to leave behind as you edited this book, and do you have any regrets?
SS: So many regrets. I cut dozens of cool stories and details from FALLOUT, for the usual reasons: either they happened at the wrong time, or they slowed down the main action of the narrative. Just to give one example, I wrote a bunch more Pushinka action in earlier drafts. Pushinka was the daughter of Strelka, one dogs the Soviets sent into space and brought safely home. Khrushchev gave the fluffy white puppy to Kennedy as a gift—and as a dig, a reminder of who was winning the space race. Kennedy was suspicious, and had the dog checked for listening devices. When she came back clean, Pushinka moved into the White House and even had a Cold War romance with another of the Kennedy dogs, a Welsh terrier named Charlie. She gave birth to four healthy puppies and 5,000 kids wrote to the White House asking to adopt one!
Pushinka
Karen House, a sixth-grade animal lover from Illinois, got Butterfly. Streaker, named for the white streak down his brown belly, went to ten-year-old Mark Bruce. When Mark went to meet the puppy at the airport in Columbia, Missouri, reporters asked if Streaker would be following his grandmother’s footsteps into space. Mark shook his head and hugged the puppy close. The Russian-American mutt looked up and licked the boy on the chin.
How do you cut something like that? Discipline, experience, and a mean editor (I mean that as a compliment).
BB: Good God, man. You do realize you just inspired someone to write a nonfiction picture book about this, yes? Okay, last question. Can you tell us what you’re working on next?
SS: Lots going on—mainly because I’ve been trapped in my office for the past 18 months, and my kids are old enough to entertain themselves, and I need to keep myself busy. I did a graphic novel adaptation of BOMB, and the artist Nick Bertozzi is doing the comics. The drawings are amazing, even better than I could have imagined. I think that’s due out in early ’23. I also wrote a picture book, and yes, it’s as hard as everyone says. And I’m working away on my next nonfiction project, the most incredible true escape story I’ve ever come across. And I’m always looking out for the next story idea…
Woohoo!
Sorry. Still psyched by the ideal of a Sheinkin/Bertozzi pairing. Best news I’ve had all day.
As mentioned before, FALLOUT is on shelves everywhere September 7th. Many thanks to Steve for answering my questions and to Morgan Kane and the folks at Macmillan for arranging this talk.
Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, September 10, 2021
The Writer's Life
Steve Sheinkin: Doing Homework for a Living
photo: Erica Miller
Steve Sheinkin writes fast-paced, cinematic nonfiction for young readers. His books include Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America; Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, which was a 2012 National Book Award finalist and a Newbery Honor Book; and Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown (reviewed below). Here, Sheinkin discusses with Shelf Awareness his love of writing nonfiction and how entertaining doing homework can be.
What has been your favorite time period to write about? Which time period have you not tackled yet but would like to?
The best thing about my job is that I get to skip around in time. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd say the Cold War, the setting for Fallout. You have this global showdown between rival powers during the golden age of spy vs. spy action--priceless elements for storytelling. Also, I lived through some of it. That definitely adds another layer for me. In terms of un-tackled time periods... I'd love to go further back, to colonial times, or maybe to the years right after the Revolution.
What is the easiest and hardest part about writing nonfiction for young readers?
You'd never know it from reading a textbook, but it's easy to find exciting true stories to tell. And the research, the nerdy detective work, is actually fun. Kids often accuse me of doing homework for a living, and I admit it. But the thing is, I get to pick the assignment, and that makes all the difference. The hardest part is figuring out how to work the needed background information into a story without killing the momentum.
Speaking of momentum, your books remind me of TV shows or movies--with details being presented over time, then culminating in a big reveal. How do you make it all flow so seamlessly?
Thanks, that's nice to hear. My brother and I grew up dreaming of being a famous brother movie-making team, and we even made a feature film in the 1990s, a political satire called A More Perfect Union (ignore any reviews you find online). I still use some of the screenwriting techniques from back then to help me structure my stories. I still write all my scene ideas on old-school index cards, using different-colored cards for the different storylines, and then build a storyboard on the wall, moving the cards around, adding some and cutting others, until the story starts to flow. It's like a puzzle, but you get to decide how it fits together. Once the storyboard works, I know the book can work.
Did you know when you started working on Fallout that your focus would be the "brink of World War III"?
Yes, I knew I was headed in that direction. I've learned that with narrative nonfiction, you absolutely need to know your ending before you begin. You need to know what you're building toward and work backward from there to figure out a structure. In Bomb, the question was, "Can anyone really build this thing?" In Fallout, it's, "Will we really be crazy enough to use it?" So, the Cuban Missile Crisis is an obvious climax with all the elements of a global thriller, and the highest stakes imaginable.
You include so many stories from historical figures who, I think, most people have never even heard of, like Harry Seidel, who secretly moved people out of East Berlin. How did you find these stories?
Oh man, Harry Seidel. A world-class East German cyclist turned Berlin Wall escape tunneler--that's an entire movie right there! Finding stories like this is what makes my job so much fun. As I say when I visit schools, I always start with libraries and good old-fashioned books. Just find a nonfiction book on a subject you're interested in (in this case, the Berlin Wall), and take notes on the people and storylines that are most intriguing. Then you can start to narrow the search, to hunt for more details on those figures, using other books, online sources, newspaper archives, interviews--whatever it takes.
Is there a story that didn't make it into Fallout that you can share with us?
Picture a small wedding on a lawn in Florida, summer of 1959. After the ceremony, the young couple descends into a hole in the ground.The couple--Maria Rodriguez and Melvin Mininson--had won a contest held by a company called Bomb Shelters, Inc. The prize: a free honeymoon in Mexico, if the couple agreed to spend the first two weeks of their marriage in an underground concrete box. The company wanted to show that, with the right shelter, people could live in ease and comfort in the days following a massive hydrogen bomb attack. So, we have this great scene of the wedding, and this young couple descending into the ground--it's a reality show from hell!
Why do you think Fallout will resonate with today's readers, and what would you like them to take away from it?
First and foremost, I hope the book will be an exciting read. There's lots of action, lots of spies and science, superbombs and the space race and it all comes together in the most dangerous moment in all human history. I really believe true stories can be just as much fun to read as novels, and I'm trying to prove it. In terms of takeaways, my number-one goal is always to make readers curious. I hope they'll come away wanting to know more, inspired to dig deeper into whatever part of the story they found most compelling.
Finally, what's next for you?
Lots of exciting things in the works. I wrote a graphic novel adaptation of Bomb, and it's being illustrated by the amazing Nick Bertozz--I can't wait for people to see his art, and what it adds to the story. I've got another historical graphic novel script in the works, a story set in the 1850s, as well as my first picture book. And I'm plugging away on another narrative nonfiction project, focused on what I think is the most incredible escape story I've ever come across. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader
SHEINKIN, Steve. Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. 352p. Roaring Brook. Sept. 2021. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781250149015.
Gr 6 Up--Sheinkin delivers another heartpounding tale, picking up where his 2012 award-winning book Bomb left off: the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War. The story opens in 1953, with Jimmy Bozart, the 13-year old paperboy who discovered a hollow nickel dropped by Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, a key early player in the series of conflicts that would lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In tightly organized chapters adorned with historical photos, Sheinkin seamlessly weaves the stories of different players and includes meticulously well-researched details to personalize and humanize his subjects. Key events from the Cold War are dramatized in detailed scenes, including the inception of the arms race between the U.SA and the U.S.S.R., the capture of U2 pilot Francis Powers, the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the building of the Berlin Wall. While Sheinkin examines up close the spies, ordinary citizens, scientists, and world leaders--including Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Khrushchev--who put events into motion, he simultaneously considers the bigger picture, not making outright villains or heroes of either side, except perhaps Soviet commander Vasily Arkhipov, who prevented a nuclear submarine strike during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sheinkin concludes with just how close the world came to catastrophe, and urges readers not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Teens who love history such as Marc Favreau's Spies and historical fiction like Jennifer Nielsen's A Night Divided won't be able to put this one down. VERDICT A first purchase for all teen collections.--Enca Ruscio, Ventas Memorial Lib., Marshfield, MA
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Ruscio, Enca. "SHEINKIN, Steve. Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown." School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 9, Sept. 2021, pp. 118+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673471381/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=21db68fe. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
Sheinkin, Steve FALLOUT Roaring Brook (Teen None) $19.99 9, 7 ISBN: 978-1-250-14901-5
A heated account of the Cold War.
Sheinkin, known for his accessible, narrative-styled history books for young readers, tackles the arms race during the Cold War era. Opening with a James Bond–style introduction to spies’ tradecraft—hollow nickels, dead drops, and secret codes—it moves through the Eisenhower and Stalin administrations to focus on John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, culminating in an hour-by-hour breakdown of the Cuban missile crisis. Thoroughly sourced, this fast-moving history provides a good overview of massively complex topics, lighting on the science behind hydrogen bombs, Duck and Cover drills, a bit of cryptography, and a compelling account of Kennedy’s exploits during World War II. There’s not enough exploration, however, of why America was so opposed to communism, no discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of global capitalism, and insufficient exploration of whether America was morally equipped for its superpower status, leaving gaps in the narrative that would help readers gain a deeper understanding of these issues in context. Whipping back and forth between times, places, and people may make it hard for some readers to follow at times, but the adventurous tone will capture and sustain their interest.
An account of a gripping real-life adventure that isn’t over yet. (source notes, bibliography, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Sheinkin, Steve: FALLOUT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A668237917/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f2b23b72. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.