The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock — John Manderino

It's Saturday, october 27, 1962, the darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two children, Ralph and his little sister Lou, are searching for empty bottles in a vacant lot when they discover a rock which -- to them, at least -- looks quite a lot like Jesus. Ralph immediately declares it a Possible Holy Object. And, since his fondest wish is to be a “boy-in-a-story,” he earnestly places himself and Lou -- now his “sidekick” -- in a tale featuring the “sacred rock” as the key to nothing less than saving the world from nuclear annihilation.





But there's another boy, Toby -- older, shrewder, and quite a bit larger -- who has very different plans for the rock, intending to use it as a lucrative sideshow exhibit, complete with fliers: Is it Jesus? Or just a rock? You decide! Hovering over the children and their small-scale war is the general anxiety and dread attending the most perilous moment in our history. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Manderino's The H-bomb and the Jesus Rock provides a unique, children's-eye view of that near-Armageddon.