This week, Macmillan’s Roaring Brook Press imprint will release Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. The new middle grade graphic novel comes from writer Steve Sheinkin and artist Nick Bertozzi, and adapts the non-fiction prose book of the same name by Sheinkin. Today, to mark the occasion of the graphic novel’s release, The Beat is pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from the book.

Here’s how Macmillan describes Bomb:

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned three continents.

In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world’s most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

Sheinkin’s original prose book Bomb was released in 2012. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award in the Young People’s Literature category, and was named a 2013 Newbury Honor Book, receiving the John Newbury Medal.

Check out the exclusive excerpt from Bomb below. The graphic novel is due out in stores today, January 24th.