Rating: 
Summary: Just okay
Review: "The Radioactive Boy Scout" is a fascinating book, but it's a perfect example of what can happen when a magazine article is expanded to book length. The basic story could easily be told in 15-20 pages, maybe 50 pages if you're really into the details. The rest of the book is just padding disguised as nuclear background information, all of which is readily available from many other sources.
The book is worth reading, but I would advise the author to stick to magazine articles.
Rating: 
Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: After reading a positive review of "The Radioactive Boy Scout," I bought a copy without first scanning a few pages. Such a blind purchase is against my usual practice, because I have learned how overhyped many new books are. I found the book well-nigh unreadable because it is so poorly written and edited. It reads like breathless pulp fiction and is written at about that level of intellect. It contains numerous grammatical and other writing errors; they made me wince throughout the book. Moreover, the author seems to have had little real information about and even less understanding of the people involved. His analyses of them and the setting of the events are simplistic and cliched: the awfulness of the suburbs, the challenges to children of divorce, that sort of thing. (Do you think that the impressions of your high school teachers would help readers understand you?) The timeline is unintelligible, with a muddle of the concepts and events of more than five decades. The book is described as having arisen from the idea of a publisher's editor, who contacted the author for an expansion after reading his initial article about the Boy Scout. That probably explains to a great extent why the book is so padded with pat recitations of the history of the nuclear age. I suspect that the review I read was prompted only by the reviewer's politics, which is unprofessional and unfair to readers. All in all, the product seems to reflect little but laziness. That's a shame because an insightful and careful analysis of the case might have been a good contribution to the literature of the nuclear debate.
Rating:
Summary: The Library Wasted it's Money
Review: Apparently the author had some extra facts on the history of nuclear power, the boy scouts, and a human intrest story that he couldn't sell. So what is a person to do? Twist the facts, tell small lies, and put three seemingly unrelated stories together to make a bad book. It is obvious that the author has had some bad experiences with nuclear power, becuase he takes at least 70 percent of the book to bad mouth america's cleanest and safest form of energy. The title was inviting and the cover art is interesting, but the words and story are a waste of time and not nearly as controversial or interesting as he makes them sound. I feel bad for the library wasting thier money on this, but I am sure glad I didn't waste mine.
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping and also frightening story
Review: August 31, 1994, Clinton Township, Michigan police searched the trunk of a teenager's car expecting to find stolen tires. Instead, what they found was a lot of chemicals and powders and equipment that the teenager warned them was radioactive. In the ensuing investigation, American authorities quickly learned that the young man, David Hahn, was building his own nuclear breeder reactor for a Boy Scouts badge! In this remarkable story, author and journalist Ken Silverstein follows the life of Mr. Hahn, from his birth, through his mother's descent into mental illness, his parents' divorce, and his own monomania for investigating nuclear power. This is quite a fascinating story. The author paints a gripping and also frightening story of a young man who is willing to break any rules to acquire the tools to make his own reactor, and just how close he came to doing so. I must admit to being absolutely amazed at what that young man accomplished! On the down side, the author does leaven his story with a good deal of editorializing. He has many, many axes to grind (he dislikes nuclear power, Disney Corporation, right-wingers, "technological truimphalism" and most of all the Boy Scouts), and he uses this book as a convenient grindstone. But, on the up side, he does use the Notes section at the end of the book to clarify that much of this story is derived from David Hahn himself, and that he is not an entirely reliable source. So, let me just say that I found this to be a great book, a gripping read, and a sadly cautionary tale. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A GREAT BOOK ABOUT VERY INVENTIVE TEENAGER
Review: David Hahn who has grown up in the suburbs of detroit for all of his childhood and teenage years.From the time he was about 4 years old he had a fascination with mixing things and expermintation which was on going process as he grew up with his parents buying remote control anything chemistry sets and the such and his desire not to play with some of these things but to take them apart and make other things.I think is desire was fed also from the fact he did not get much support from the family yes his mother loved him to death but she was dealing with mental problems and alcoholism,and his father who divorced his mother and married again into another family that left david feeling left out and seems he found at least some comfort in his voracious appetite for reading scientific material.
This book also cover alot about the nuclear industry from the time of discovery by the Curies,the Manhatten Project to modern day nuke power plants.There many interesting facts to see how people with no prior knowledge of the effects of radioactive exposure.In the early 1900's when they thought that Radium was a great elixir and the fact that it glowed they used on all kinds of things like roulette wheels clock faces people even smeared on the teeth and lips to make them glow,the cost for Radium was amazing they figure about 3 million an ounce an it only took about 70 cents to kill you.
David was by all accountswhat most people would figure a geek but according to the book he was not your typical geek in that he was a fairly good looking kid who had a very pretty gir;friend.He had a few other interest but his main ohter interest was in scouting which fed his desire to learn about atomic energy and related subjects and also gave him the drive to go on to be a eagle scout.He develop many things his own gun powder,fireworks,hair color,tanning solutions.
I am not against nuclear energy but it was interesting to see how atomic has been portrayed through the decades how in the 50's they basically said there was no real harm and that one day we would use nuclear products to operate everything cars ,airplanes and such and how in modern day how countries have went about saometimes for decades to cover up accidents.
There were many interesting things to learn in here like when they dropped the bombs in japan it cooked birds in midflight.Some of the scientific stuff was a little tough at times for a novice like me but the author did a pretty good job.I did not know there were so many things that wehave that have traces of radioactive material in it.This is a great book i encourage to give it a read.The only thing in conclusion is i wonder what course his life would take with a little direction
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining read
Review: I read this book through in two sittings. It was a fun and interesting read about a very unusual character and a very serious problem. The background information concerning the nuclear power industry was useful and helped fill in the context of the times and underline the seriousness of the danger. I didn't see the information concerning the safety and cost record of the nuclear industry as being political, unless recounting these issues, that are a matter of record, is now considered a political act.
Rating:
Summary: Easy, quick read
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book and found the story to be quite interesting. The story is not all that involved, so the author intersperses the storyline with chapters on nuclear development. I was somewhat disappointed with the ending as the build up to end was much better than the end itself. Of course, in a non-fiction account, we can't make a cool, tidy ending to a fascinating story if the story doesn't end in a cool, tidy way.
200 small pages with an interesting storyline, so it doesn't take long to finish.
Rating: 
Summary: The Radioactive Boy Scout
Review: I recently purchased a copy of "The Radioactive Boy Scout." I had read a Ken Silverstein's article in "Reader's Digest" about this teenager who created a nuclear reactor in his backyard shed. Having taken a few physics classes in college I was interested to learn more about this teenager. I grew up in Silicone Valley and attended high school in the early eighties. I had a friend who performed many of these same experiments. Our science fairs prizes were sometimes awarded to youth who had created electron microscopes or other endeavors, which to the uninitiated would seem beyond the abilities of a teenager. Unfortunately Ken Silverstein not only falls into the category of the uninitiated but his writing is repetitive, his views are stereotypical and his book is an embarrassment to the anti-nuclear movement. Not only is he ignorant of the level of science experiments that are presented in high school science fairs, he has such a stereotypical view of scientists that he continually refers to David as a geek. Ken is truly surprised that David is not an ugly boy with thick glasses. It is clear that Ken has sophomoric view of the world. Ken quotes a 2001 report from the International Energy Agency, "Nuclear power is currently being abandoned globally." It may have been abandoned by the western world, but both India and Pakistan have demonstrated bombs in the last decade. North Korea is rumored to be very close. Rather that providing a comparison with the bomb programs in Pakistan, India or North Korea, Ken spends a chapter in his book lamenting the fact that the founder of the Boy Scouts encouraged boys not to masturbate. Realize that a boy in Detroit without the encouragement of his parents and living in a country that closely monitors radioactive material was able to enrich small quantites of highly dangerous material. There is an important story here, but the book the "Radioactive Boy Scout" is not it. The book the "Radioactive Boy Scout" is short and tedious. If you read his article, you have already read the interesting parts.
Rating:
Summary: Left-wing agenda
Review: I wish I'd noticed the author's association with Mother Jones and The Nation before I bought this book, as large parts are devoted to leftist digs on 1960's American culture. Throughout, there's an undercurrent of dislike for nuclear energy and even warnings(?) about nuclear accidents and George W. Bush. There are lots of boring insights into the less-than-perfect family life of David Hahn, the teenage scientist, and weird psychoanalysis of the Boy Scout organization. Indeed, the author has a real problem with the Boy Scouts, linking them to Hitler and Mussolini! I did enjoy the 40 or so pages devoted to actual experiments, and I'm sure it was originally a good article in Harper's magazine.
Rating:
Summary: Great read, not so great personal agenda
Review: Mr. Silverstein has written a fascinating history of a young man's fixation on nuclear energy. The book was engaging, informative, and well-written.
My favorite element of the book was the excellent way in which Mr. Silverstein framed the story by putting it in the context of the history of nuclear science. The history of nuclear science was terrific. Mr. Silverstein clearly deserves praise for his thorough research and superb presentation of this material.
Unfortunately, Mr. Silverstein does not disguise his didain for the Boy Scouts of America and for nuclear energy. His negative opinions--in particular his frequent harping on the Boy Scouts--interrupted the flow of the book, and unnecessarily detracted from the story. Without this wart the book would be phenomenal.
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