Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation

by Candy J Cooper, Marc Aronson

Overview

Based on original reporting by a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an industry veteran, the first book for young adults about the Flint water crisis
In 2014, Flint, Michigan, was a cash-strapped city that had been built up, then abandoned by General Motors. As part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Then it got worse: children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Citizens of Flint protested that the water was dangerous. Despite what seemed so apparent from the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city’s faucets, officials refused to listen. They treated the people of Flint as the problem, not the water, which was actually poisoning thousands.
Through interviews with residents and intensive research into legal records and news accounts, journalist Candy J. Cooper, assisted by writer-editor Marc Aronson, reveals the true story of Flint. Poisoned Water shows not just how the crisis unfolded in 2014, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, the beliefs and attitudes that fueled it, and how the people of Flint fought—and are still fighting—for clean water and healthy lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547602322
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/19/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	152,356
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Candy J. Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. She has been a staff writer for four newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Examiner. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among other publications. She is also the author of several books for classroom use. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Marc Aronson earned his PhD in American history while beginning his career as an editor and author of books for children and teenagers. The first winner of the Robert L. Sibert medal from the American Library Association and the editor of the tenth winner, he is now a full-time faculty member at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information. He and his wife and sometimes coauthor, Marina Budhos, live in Maplewood, New Jersey.
marcaronson.com

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Roots and Margins 9

2 Pure, Natural, Mineral 21

3 "The Water Is Biting Them" 31

4 To the Dome 47

5 Big Worries Here 57

6 Ten Thousand Children 67

7 A Good Guess 75

8 Water Out of Control 83

9 Trust Fall 89

10 "The Big Red Flag" 97

11 A Whistle Blows 109

12 Denial 115

13 Convergence 119

14 Blood Speaks 133

15 A Tipping Point 141

16 A World Rocked 147

17 Surrender 157

18 A Ceaseless Trail 165

19 "A Gaggle of Bottled Waters" 171

20 Blame without End 179

21 "We Can Save Ourselves" 189

22 Coming Back Where? 197

23 Roaring Uphill 203

24 "My Destiny Is Dismal" 213

"But a Flint Holds Fire" Andrea Ramsey 217

A Note from the Authors 221

Acknowledgments 231

Credits and Contributors 234

Index 237

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/20/2020

Effectively chronicling the Flint water crisis, investigative reporter Cooper and author Aronson (Rising Water) unearth the complex underpinnings of this tragedy. Placing later events in context with a history of Flint’s rise from a trading village established in 1819 to a booming GM factory town in the 1930s, the authors relate how Flint became one of the most segregated cities in America through redlined neighborhood maps and white flight to the suburbs. This, in addition to factory closures and the 1970s economic downturn, changed the city’s nickname from Vehicle City to Murdertown, U.S.A. The narrative gains momentum when it turns to the crisis itself, beginning with the city’s decision to save money by building a new water pipeline to Lake Huron and using water from the heavily polluted Flint River in the meantime; the action left residents, may of whom fell below the poverty level, with astronomical water bills and foul, poisonous water. Cooper and Aronson skillfully characterize the cast of local activists, government bureaucrats, doctors, and victims who fought to unearth and reveal the truth about the poisoned water and its effects, including the various women in the forefront, dubbed “water warriors.” Powerful photographs and primary source material round out the narrative. This hard-hitting journalistic account both explains the water crisis and cautions about how future catastrophes might occur. Ages 10–up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Poignant . . . This detailed offering, the first specifically intended for young audiences, has multiple curriculum applications.” —Booklist, starred review

“Thoroughly sourced and meticulously documented, this stomach-churning, blood-boiling, tear-jerking account synthesizes a city's herculean efforts to access safe, clean water. . . . This compulsively readable, must-buy narrative nonfiction serves as the ultimate antidote to civic complacence.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“A careful, conscious encapsulation of a consequential U.S. frontier for renewed environmental justice activism.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2020

Gr 6 Up—The water crisis of Flint, MI, came to international attention thanks to a cohort of well-placed whistleblowers, journalists, scientists, and concerned citizens. In 2011, a series of state-appointed Emergency Managers tasked with minimizing costs and maximizing revenues took control of debt-strapped Flint. In April of 2014, the city's water supply switched from the Detroit-treated waters of Lake Huron to the locally pumped, pollutant-laden Flint River. Astute citizens immediately noticed that something was wrong. The water reeked, wasn't transparent, and tasted awful. Those who consumed or even touched it experienced pains, rashes, hair loss, and other mysterious illnesses. Tests revealed it was loaded with toxins, bacteria, and extremely high quantities of lead. Though residents' collective health and pocketbooks suffered, they refused to bear injustice in silence. Thoroughly sourced and meticulously documented, this stomach-churning, blood-boiling, tear-jerking account synthesizes a city's herculean efforts to access safe, clean water. Readers receive a crash course in a century's worth of institutional malfeasance, then join a resident-constructed coalition that crosses every conceivable demographic line, organizing, researching, and protesting alongside them. Flint stands today, not due to proper oversight or intervention, but because the community stands together. Their story should ignite us all—especially the next generation of citizen activists. VERDICT This compulsively readable, must-buy narrative nonfiction serves as the ultimate antidote to civic complacence.—Steven Thompson, Bound Brook Memorial Public Library, NJ

School Library Journal

2020-03-15
Foregrounding the intergenerational activism of community members, this work takes a long view of the Flint water crisis as an indicator of U.S. environmental struggles.

The authors begin by highlighting the wisdom of activist, pastor, and lifelong Flint resident Elder Sarah Bailey, who points to the importance of sharing Flint’s story while expressing caution about the impact of outsiders coming to study and report on the water crisis. The context is set through an overview of Flint’s long history, from its beginnings as a fur trading settlement following land dispossession of Ojibwa citizens to its racially segregated heyday as General Motors’ “Vehicle City” up until the dwindling tax revenues of postwar deindustrialization and the organized abandonment of white flight left a heavy burden on the city. The book emphasizes that residents collectively and consistently levied demands against the significant harm caused by enforced austerity, legacies of socio-economic segregation, and environmental negligence long before the highly visible national coverage beginning in 2015. In-depth research and interviews with well-known leaders and ordinary citizens, including many young people, augmented by ample photographs, bring home the tragic outcomes for Flint residents of environmental injustice and the decay of public infrastructure. Readers will understand how this impact will continue to be felt disproportionately by people of color and the poor unless we transform how we govern society.

A careful, conscious encapsulation of a consequential U.S. frontier for renewed environmental justice activism. (authors’ note, credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews