Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting story - flawed delivery
Review: Sadly, this true story of a teenager who achieved some remarkable (and remarkably dangerous) achievements in amateur nuclear experimentation is marred by author Ken Silverstein's personal prejudices. Silverstein spends the first six chapters of the book ranting against nuclear energy, the protagonist's social failings, and... the Boy Scouts, of all things. Go figure.
The tale is definitely an interesting one, but skim the book up to the middle of chapter 6 and then begin reading in earnest. Most of the reason you bought the book is chapter 7.
If your politics lean to the extreme left, add an extra star to my rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating read, but over-editorialized
Review: Silverstein does a decent job of relaying a fascinating story; the book is a quick read and moves along smoothly. There are three down-sides to the book:
1) His anti-nuclear biases are blatant enough to make one question the integrity of his reporting; his editorializing is tedious and simple-minded.
2) When one takes a step back and analyzes the story, much of it appears quite over-blown, which I suspect is the real reason it did not get much press attention when it occurred (without giving away the story, i will say that the conclusion is long on hypothetical, somewhat hysterical hyperbole and short on actual nefarious consequences).
3) His characterization of the boy and his family is jaundiced and needlessly judgmental; it is clear that the author has only a cursory understanding of the struggles and limitations many individuals face.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: The entire story is contained within parts of chapters 3, 7 and 8. Much of the rest of the book padding, or worse, Mr. Silverstein's political views. I came away with the sense that the story was actually no more than a vehicle by which the author could promote his negative views on the Boy Scouts and the nuclear industry.
As a physics and chemistry teacher, and a former Boy Scout, I can say with informed confidence that the author knows little about any of these topics. Silverstein for instance, describes lithium as the most reactive metal when in fact, of the alkali metals, it is the least reactive. The author describes sodium as being explosive in both air and water, when in fact sodium reacts with water to form hydrogen gas that will, if ignited, burn--the sodium itself just goes into solution as lye. In air sodium just tarnishes rapidly. The author also demonstartes his lack of understanding of the relationship between half-life and levels of radioactivity.
The actual story of the younster and his "nuclear reactor" is of only passing interest. Save your money; there's nothing here.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a Tale
Review: The Radioactive Boy Scout is quite a tale--intelligently written, thorough and pretty darn scary when you get right down to it. David Kahn, a high school student, chemistry fan and Boy Scout in search of the Eagle Scout honor pretty much constructed a rudimentary nuclear reactor in his back yard potting shed in suburban Detroit, using old clocks and discarded smoke alarms, among other things. Ken Silverstein takes this unbelievable story and fashions it into something the reader can believe, however scary that may be. Silverstein tosses in much nuclear trivia and information that add to the story. An enjoyable and scary read. I am recommending it to all of my scientifically oriented friends.
Rating:
Summary: The Atom is Our Friend
Review: There's something not quite serious about The Radioactive Boy Scout. The book jacket has a cartoonish design and each page has a little atomic symbol by the page number. It's a small book, almost like a children's reader. It seemed to me as if it would be a quick, fun read.Well, it was quick, all right. Author Ken Silverstein originally wrote this as an article for Harper's Magazine, according to the blurb. The article has been padded with several chapters on nuclear power, chemistry, and the history of the Boy Scouts. But The Radioactive Boy Scout is hardly a cartoon or a fun little story. Although this is a story about how one teenager nearly built a nuclear reactor in his back yard, Silverstein wants us to know it is more than that. He emphasizes how David Hahn, the teenager, was neglected by his parents and not taken seriously by his teachers. If only someone had taken the time to take this boy under his wing, perhaps a near-disaster could have been averted. Certainly, the fact that there was no disaster takes the edge off the story, but unfortunately, we already know what can happen when teenagers don't get the attention they need. I enjoyed the main story as well as the chapters on science and the Boy Scouts. Silverstein describes how radium-based products were sold in the early 20th century as tonics, lotions, and even suppositories, to improve one's health. He recalls filmstrips (remember?) and pamphlets that cheerfully told us to "duck and cover" in the event of a nuclear explosion. He uses a hilarious passage from P.G. Wodehouse to illustrate a common view of the Boy Scouts in their early days. Although I share most of Silverstein's opinions on federal government, the nuclear power industry, the Boy Scouts, and inattentive parents, I think the story would have been more effective if he had left his editorial comments out. Describing David's father as "pathologically oblivious" is unnecessary. True, but unnecessary.
Rating:
Summary: Good story bad writing!
Review: This book is about 80 pages of a real good true story, and 120 pages of the author's personal "babblings" of his views on politics and the ideal family. If it were possible to cut huge chapters and non - necessary sections out of this book I would give it a 5 star rating but because of the "muddying of the story" it rates lower. Still it is a decent book and a good read. I do not regret buying it and/or reading it, I just feel it could have been streamlined and focused a lot more by the author leaving his personal feelings out of someone else's life story.
Rating:
Summary: Being left out of the equation.
Review: This book was quite scary. And it wasn't even fiction, which made it all the more frightening. (I also found it equally as frightening that at least two of the previous reviewers spelled "Manhattan" incorrectly as "Manhatten." It's called a dictionary. Look into it.) In addition to hearing about how seemingly easy it was for David Hahn, the radioactive boy scout described in the title, to obtain radioactive materials from regular, nonrestricted products, I was just as surprised and shocked to hear about some of the other, larger nuclear accidents of the past few decades, some of them not well publicized. While I was aware of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and some of the others, there were incidents from the 1960s such as the British Windscale plant and the breeder reactor around Detroit, which I'd never heard of. (While the author is at it, he might look at Brookhaven National Labs in NY. Given the cancer clusters in the areas around it, I'm sure there's a book there too.) I did see that the main story of David Hahn didn't take up a huge amount of space and that there was some padding with other, related material. However, I don't think that diminishes the impact of the story. The lesson here is that while nuclear planners have strategies for regulated, large-scale nuclear accidents, small-scale efforts by individuals seem to have been left out of the equation entirely.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Story
Review: This book's title immediately caught my attention. Since I've been working in the nuclear field as a radiation dosimetry specialist for almost 30 years now, I couldn't help but to wonder what this young man could have done to be the subject of a book with such a title. So, I bought the book out of curiosity and read it with intense fascination. It became clear to me that this young man is gifted; and if his efforts could be properly focused, he could do great things. The book is a page turner. It is well written and in an engaging style. The author weaves a truly riveting story - and a true one on top of that. Unfortunately, the book has two shortcomings, i.e., the reasons for four stars instead of five. First of all, there are technical errors; here are only two examples: Roentgen discovered x rays in 1895 and not in 1896 as indicated on page 30; also, and more importantly, the statement on page 159 that beta particles from tritium can penetrate one or two centimeters of human flesh is grossly incorrect. In fact, the most energetic beta particles emitted by the tritium nucleus cannot even penetrate the skin's dead cell layer on the outer surface of the skin - they are simply not fast enough to give a radiation dose even to the skin, let alone deeper human flesh. The second shortcoming is the book's anti-nuke flavor. Tongue-in-cheek statements that tend to put into question the competence of engineers and scientists who are trying to improve the human condition should be replaced by statements that put as much emphasis on the successes and breakthroughs, as on the errors and misjudgments; otherwise a very misleading, erroneous and biased impression may be acquired by those simply wishing to learn the facts. At any rate, it is not my intent to belabor these points. This book presents a truly exciting story and will not disappoint; but by no means should it be used as an accurate historical or technical reference in nuclear science.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, poor story telling
Review: This was a BIG missed opportunity to tell a great story. Instead, the author felt the need to inject his own anti-nuclear, anti-boy scout views into what should have been a non-political story. It's still a decent read, but I give it 2 stars for the missed opportunity.
Rating:
Summary: Blatant editorializing and content padding.
Review: Unfortunately, Mr. Silverstein has taken what would otherwise be an interesting little pamphlet about a teenager's activities gone seriously awry, and padded it out to booklet length with blatant negative editorializing, over sensationalism and mediocre writing. If the anti-nuclear, anti-Scout and amateur observations pertaining to the anti-nuclear family (pun intended) are extracted and thoughtfully edited, perhaps a chapter or two of "on topic" content remain.
The potential for several good, and worthwhile, stories are certainly present in this booklet. Developing those stories will also certainly require the talents of a more focused, less biased and better writer.
It is not likely that I will again be fooled into purchasing a booklet by Mr. Silverstein.
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