The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

Its 1943, there’s a war going on, and Dewey Kerrigan lives in a place that “officially doesn’t exist.” She lives on “The Hill” with her mathematician father who is working with scientists from all over the world, racing to invent “the gadget”- a secret weapon that will end the war. Dewey enjoys life on the hill despite the fact that she is shunned by most of the children her own age. Most of the girls she knows call her “Screwy Dewy” and can’t understand why she would want to spend so much time with her nose buried in a book called “The Boy Mechanic.” Dewey enjoys inventing things on her own, and spends most of her time in the company of both boys and men who share her interest in building and inventing things.  Things become a bit more complicated for Dewey when she is forced to live with Suze, a girl in her class who tries too hard to fit in and often makes fun of Dewey as a way of getting attention.   But Suze and Dewey aren’t the only ones who are being forced to make adjustments.  Life for everyone on The Hill intensifies as the grownups race to finish the gadget, and everyone faces difficult questions of their own.
Can Suze and Dewey learn to become friends? Will the Gadget work and if it does, what will happen? People are saying that when “the gadget” is tested the air will catch on fire. Will it? With all that is going on around them, how will Suze and Dewey cope with the information they receive on the afternoon that everything changed?
Read from the book pg 225.

“Girls, sit down,” Mrs. Gordon said, and her voice quavered. Suze had never heard her sound like that before. The sat, one on each chair, and Suze braced herself for the biggest lecture of her whole life. Then Oppie spoke.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. He held up a piece of flimsy yellow paper, a telegram. “There’s been an accident.”
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages.