The Radium Girls
Young Readers' Edition: The Scary but True Story of the Poison that Made People Glow in the Dark
Amid the excitement of the early twentieth century, hundreds of young women spend their days hard at work painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark radium paint. The painters consider themselves lucky—until they start suffering from a mysterious illness. As the corporations try to cover up a shocking secret, these shining girls suddenly find themselves at the center of a deadly scandal.
The Radium Girls: Young Readers Edition tells the unbelievable true story of these incredible women, whose determination to fight back saved countless lives.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 17, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9798765019177
- File size: 194467 KB
- Duration: 06:45:08
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
March 20, 2017
British ghostwriter Moore traces the lives of more than a dozen American women who were employed as luminous watch-dial painters as early as 1917. She tells how these women, some barely in their 20s, were enchanted by high pay and the allure of the paint’s luminescent substance: radium. Carefully researched, the work will stun readers with its descriptions of the glittering artisans who, oblivious to health dangers, twirled camel-hair brushes to fine points using their mouths, a technique called lip-pointing. By the end of 1918, one out of six American soldiers owned a luminous watch, but the women had begun losing their teeth and entire pieces of their jaws. Moore describes the gruesome effects of radiation exposure on these women’s bodies, and she spares nothing in relaying the intense emotional suffering of their friends and families during subsequent medical investigations and court battles. In giving voice to so many victims, Moore overburdens the story line, which culminates with a 1938 headline trial during which a former employee of the Radium Dial Company collapsed on the stand and had to testify from bed. Moore details what was a “ground-breaking, law-changing, and life-saving accomplishment” for worker’s rights; it lends an emotionally charged ending to a long, sad book. -
AudioFile Magazine
This audiobook tells the tragic story of the women who worked with the new wonder element, radium, ushering in a new era for American businesses, and paying for it with their lives. Narrator Angela Brazil has a lively, clear voice, excellent diction, and a great sense of pacing. She maintains her energy throughout this impressive history and varies her approach to keep the story interesting and approachable. For most of the book, though, Brazil sounds as though she's announcing rather than simply narrating. It would have been better to dial back some of her energy and focus on phrasing as opposed to pronouncing every individual word with precision. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
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