Shortlisted for the 2017 Text PrizeToday would have been an ordinary Saturday, except that two things happened:1) The peacocks escapedand2) I started writing this story.Dad says if you want to write a story you should start by choosing a topic that you know a lot about. That's why this is a story about peacocks. I know a lot about peacocks because:(a) Two peacocks live in the holiday flats across the road from meand(b) I'm good at finding them when they go missing.The last time William Shakespeare and Virginia went missing Cassie found them sitting on a coiled hose behind the fire station, and Dad called her 'Cassie Andersen, Peacock Detective'. So this time she knows what to do—she'll look for clues and track them down. But the clues lead her in an unexpected direction and Cassie finds herself investigating a confusing mystery about her family.The Peacock Detectives is a warm and engaging story... Views: 5
Award-winning author Alice Mattison's new novel explores the hard choices a young woman and her friends made decades earlier at the height of the Vietnam War.Decades ago in Brooklyn, three girls demonstrated against the Vietnam War, and each followed a distinct path into adulthood. Helen became a violent revolutionary and was killed in a protest in 1970. Val wrote a controversial book, Bright Morning of Pain, which was essentially a novelization of Helen's all-too-short but vibrant life. And Olive became an editor and writer, now comfortably settled with her husband, Griff, in modern-day New Haven.When Olive is asked to write an essay about Val's book, a work that attracts and repulses her in equal measure, doing so brings back to the forefront Olive and Griff's tangled histories and their complicated reflections on that tumultuous time in their young lives. Things only become more fraught when Griff borrows Olive's treasured first edition of the... Views: 5
The third book in the stunning 'River Maid' series from Sunday Times bestseller, Dilly Court is available to pre order now! Standing on London's Victoria docks with the wind biting through her shawl, Rose Munday realises she's been abandoned by her sweetheart. She had risked everything to get to London but, stumbling through the peasoup fog, she has nowhere to go, and no one to turn to. Scared and alone, Rose steps straight into danger, only to be rescued by two women with even less to their names – a woman of the night and her young sidekick, Sparrow. With only a cluster of love letters to her name and all hope of her sweetheart's return fading, Rose finds herself forging a new life with her unlikely companions. But when a good deed turns sour, a dangerous enemy threatens to ruin them all. Will Rose be able to save her new friends and her future? If she can, a Christmas gift awaits that will change her life forever... Views: 5
British weather is always unpredictable, but the Spring of 1980 was something else entirely – snow, hail, floods, drought and sometimes the whole ticket. Trucks were overturned, motorways closed, trees uprooted, crops flattened. When the sun finally rose on Stickle Island – stuck out there, a mile off Dymchurch in County Kent – six bales of primo marijuana had washed up on shore. Stickle Island follows the island's myriad residents as they come up with a (not entirely agreed upon) plan to form a co-op and use the profit from pot sales to save the island's only ferry, which, thanks to the miserly Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has just been placed on the chopping block. There's hot-tempered and anarchic DC, a soused farmer Henry Stick, his bitter rival John, a horny vicar, an even hornier Postmistress, and their collected offspring: a clutch of teen punks, all of whom could use a leg up, or at least, a decent toke. Unfortunately for them, a violent and wildly... Views: 5
The dramatic story of the Flint water crisis, told “with the gripping intrigue of a Grisham thriller” (O: The Oprah Magazine)—an inspiring tale of scientific resistance by a relentless physician who stood up to power.
Flint was already a troubled city in 2014 when the state of Michigan—in the name of austerity—shifted the source of its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Soon after, citizens began complaining about the water that flowed from their taps—but officials rebuffed them, insisting that the water was fine. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at the city’s public hospital, took state officials at their word and encouraged the parents and children in her care to continue drinking the water—after all, it was American tap water, blessed with the state’s seal of approval.
But a conversation at a cookout with an old friend, leaked documents from a rogue environmental inspector, and the activism of a concerned mother raised red flags about lead—a neurotoxin whose irreversible effects fall most heavily on children. Even as circumstantial evidence mounted and protests grew, Dr. Mona knew that the only thing that could stop the lead poisoning was undeniable proof—and that to get it, she’d have to enter the fight of her life.
What the Eyes Don’t See *is the inspiring story of how Dr. Mona—accompanied by an idiosyncratic team of researchers, parents, friends, and community leaders—proved that Flint’s kids were exposed to lead and then fought her own government and a brutal backlash to expose that truth to the world. Paced like a scientific thriller, this book shows how misguided austerity policies, the withdrawal of democratic government, and callous bureaucratic indifference placed an entire city at risk. And at the center of the story is Dr. Mona herself—an immigrant, doctor, scientist, and mother whose family’s activist roots inspired her pursuit of justice.
What the Eyes Don’t See* is a riveting, beautifully rendered account of a shameful disaster that became a tale of hope, the story of a city on the ropes that came together to fight for justice, self-determination, and the right to build a better world for their—and all of our—children.
“Flint is a public health disaster. But it was Dr. Mona, this caring, tough pediatrician turned detective, who cracked the case.”—Rachel Maddow
“It’s one thing to point out a problem. It is another thing altogether to step up and work to fix it. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a true American hero.”—Erin Brockovich
**Review
“The Iraqi American pediatrician who helped expose the Flint water crisis lays bare the bureaucratic bunk and flat-out injustice at the heart of the environmental disgrace—revealing, with the gripping intrigue of a Grisham thriller, ‘the story of a government poisoning its own citizens, and then lying about it.’”—*O: The Oprah Magazine*
“Flint is a public health disaster. But it was Dr. Mona, this caring, tough pediatrician turned detective, who cracked the case.”—Rachel Maddow
“It’s one thing to point out a problem. It is another thing altogether to step up and work to fix it. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a true American hero.”—Erin Brockovich
“Essential for all readers who care about children, health, and the environment. This should be required reading for public servants as an incisive cautionary tale, and for pediatricians and youth advocates as a story of heroism in the ranks of people who have the capacity to make a difference.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“She is an unlikely hero—a pediatrician who went up against the forces responsible for poisoning an American city, my hometown of Flint, Michigan. Yet because of her gentle but unrelenting perseverance, she brought the world’s attention to this crime. A story of race, greed, and a crumbling democracy, What the Eyes Don’t See is a brilliantly written book—may it help save every Flint in this country.”—Michael Moore
“[A] powerful firsthand account . . . Hanna-Attisha’s empathy for her patients and the people of Flint comes through, as do her pride in her Iraqi roots and her persistent optimism. . . . An inspiring work.”—*Publishers Weekly*
“Told with passion and intelligence, What the Eyes Don’t See is an essential text for understanding the full scope of injustice in Flint and the importance of fighting for what’s right.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Beautifully written, What the Eyes Don’t See captures all that is wrong and right in America at this moment. This child of Iraqi immigrants is a true American hero, who told truth to power and galvanized a nation. Everyone who cares about the past and the future of the United States has to read her amazing, heartwarming, and inspiring story.”—Gerald Markowitz, co-author of *Lead Wars *
“Mona Hanna-Attisha details her extraordinary effort to document and publicize the tragedy of the lead-poisoned kids she found in her clinics every day, woven together with her personal journey as a young physician serving a population of underserved and underrepresented citizens in Flint. This elegant volume brings home what is best in public health—and what is worst in public policy. This book should be read by every citizen.”—David Rosner, co-author of *The Concussion Crisis*
About the Author
Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a physician, scientist, and activist who has been called to testify twice before the United States Congress, awarded the Freedom of Expression Courage Award by PEN America, and named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Views: 5
