My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.94 with 17 ratings (as of 9/1/2020)

Amidst the excitement of the early twentieth century, hundreds of young women spend their days hard at work painting watch dials for troops overseas using glow-in-the-dark paint made with radium. They are well paid and consider themselves lucky—until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. As the corporations try to cover up a shocking secret, these determined shining girls suddenly find themselves at the center of a historic and deadly scandal.

Written with a captivating voice and galloping pace, The Radium Girls illuminates the courage and tenacity of these incredible women, whose determination to fight back led to life-changing regulation, advanced nuclear research, and ultimately saved countless lives. …Synopsis from Goodreads

200 Word Review

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark was adapted for younger readers by Kate Moore from her bestselling novel The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women.

It tells the story of the wonder drug of the early 1900s, radium. It was thought to cure illnesses, and its luminescent properties made it ideal for glow-in-the-dark watches and for dials and instruments of pilots during WWI. To paint these devices, women would lick the brushes, dip them into the radium, paint, then repeat. The women did not know they were becoming sick with radium poisoning. Some did not show symptoms until years after they stopped working with the radium.

If you read the original version, you know it is detailed and includes timelines of multiple people. The version for a younger audience is written with age-appropriate content, but it is still incredibly detailed and more than 400 pages. The story shows these women as individuals, showing their separate lives, but also the strong, tight-knit group who fought for themselves and to ensure workplace safety for all.

This book is perfect for assigned reading for history or science classes.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Barnes and Noble on 9/1/20 and will be published on Amazon on 9/8/20. When available, the review will be published on Scribd.com and, using Overdrive, will be rated in 9 libraries.

Genre: Nonfiction, Middle Grade, History, Strong women
Print Length: 432 pages
ISBN: 9781728210346
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Purchase at Amazon *** Barnes and Noble