Gail Jarrow

Jarrow writes fascinating and well-researched narrative nonfiction about little-known periods in history. This latest book is about Orson Welles's 1938 dramatized radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, which sparked a panic. Or did it?

From Welles's childhood and rise to fame, to worldwide events preceding World War II that contributed to the results, to the effect of radio and the reaction of newspapers, Jarrow has written an excellent account of the phenomena that is enshrined show more in popular myth and history as a major panic, demonstrating the gullibility of the American people. Readers will learn that fake news and hoaxes are certainly no new phenomena and perhaps even reflect on their own media consumption.

But, will there be readers? I found this fascinating - I knew of the Welles broadcast in a general way, although I'd never learned more details about it. I enjoyed the way Jarrow starts out with an attention-grabbing story of invasion and ends with the careers of those involved; many were blacklisted during the red scares and eventually moved away from the entertainment industry. She also did a great job of carefully researching her sources and evaluating the studies and reasons why newspapers hyped the effects, as well as how it affects news today. Unfortunately, I've found that Calkins Creek titles don't get a wide range of readers. They're textually fairly challenging, requiring a fluent and mature reader. Ideally, I'd give them to middle schoolers but there just aren't that many middle schoolers willing or able to read a thoughtful nonfiction title on an obscure historical event, no matter how well-written it is.

Verdict: I'm glad this is available in my system, but I can't justify buying it. I will probably pull it for 5th grade inquiry topics - some kids have chosen "hoaxes" in the past and this would be ideal - and see if that generates enough interest to make it worth purchasing.

ISBN: 9781629797762; Published 2018 by Calkins Creek; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

“At the dawn of the twentieth century, few people had a clue that they were regularly being ripped off, drugged, and poisoned.”

This is at the end of chapter one, a chapter full of facts about what people used to put in their bodies! Yikes!
Moving from farming and growing your own food to relying on business for food opened people up to the unscrupulous industry. Adulteration occurred, adding cheaper materials or disguised rotten ingredients to appear, and smell, fresh. Talc, paraffin, and show more ground marble were just a few! Opium, morphine, and cocaine in medicines, even children’s cough syrups! Radium in others! And the special formula for Coca-Cola had cocaine in it until 1903!
Human guinea pigs? Poison eaters? WTF??? "The Poison Squads were more than several dozen young men brave enough to 'eat the fare'."

Dr. Harvey Wiley tried to fight the food industry, but politics, and the big money behind it, would not heed his warnings. It's a horrible, true story, and though it is written for young readers, everyone should read this, regardless of age! Especially during this time of the Trump administration, and its constant dismantling of regulatory agencies. He could put us back as poison eaters easily, and I'm sure he would, if the price was right! Big business, and 'men' like Trump, rarely do the right thing because it's the right thing. They do what's profitable. This book makes that point crystal clear!

p.s. - LOVE the cover skull and "crossbones"! show less

I was absolutely fascinated by Jarrow's Red Madness, but I had a hard time seeing an audience for it at my library. This newest title, however, for some reason strikes me as a much easier sell with the the more prominent mystery aspect.

The book focuses on three characters who were pivotal in the fight against typhoid: George Soper and Sara Josephine Baker, public health officials, and Mary Mallon, who became known as "Typhoid Mary". The story moves back and forth between the confrontations show more with Mary and the struggle to decide what to do with the first known healthy typhoid carrier and Soper and Baker's fight to investigate, contain, and eradicate the deadly disease of typhoid. The final chapter talks about the continued threat of typhoid today and ongoing scientific study of the disease.

Back matter includes a psa to remind people to wash their hands, a photo montage of famous people who suffered from typhoid, glossary, timeline including outbreaks, a lengthy selection of further resources for more information, an author's note talking about how she became interested in writing this book and her writing process, source notes, bibliography, and index.

What made this, to me, so much more accessible than Jarrow's previous book (awesome though it was) was that the people in the story felt so much more immediate and relatable. It's also just a more engaging story overall - lots of elements of mystery and adventure with the added drama of death and disease. It was fascinating to see how Jarrow managed to portray the complicated issues of epidemics, quarantines, individual and collective rights from many different perspectives.

Verdict: This was absolutely riveting and I think will be of interest to any middle grade kids who are interested in history or just an exciting story. Recommended.

ISBN: 9781620915974; Published March 2015 by Calkins Creek; ARC provided by publisher at ALA Midwinter 2015 show less

Good nonfiction that will grab readers and not let them go often does so from the first paragraph: “Early on a damp March morning in 1907, Mary Mallon answered the knock at the servants’ entrance of a New York brownstone house. She took one look at the visitors and lunged at them with her sharp fork. As they flinched, she ran toward the kitchen.” (p. 1) I dare you to put down a book that starts that way. Don’t you have to know why Mary Mallon is attacking visitors arriving at the show more servants’ entrance? Don’t you have to find out who she is and why this is happening? Grippingly told, with all the attributes of good storytelling, Jarrow never falters with the facts as she traces the path of the woman who came to be known as Typhoid Mary. While there is lots of information about the disease itself and the havoc its path wreaked on its victims, there is also the sense of mystery. The medical world ostensibly had a mystery on its hands. George Soper, whose own tragic past of losing his father to tuberculosis, had triggered his desire to be a part of eliminating deadly diseases and a career in engineering was his path to do this: Studying sanitation, he traced connections that built his reputation as “an epidemic fighter.” Ultimately, his trail led to tracking down Mary Mallon. So what about Mary, you wonder? Why did she have this horrific reaction to being tracked down? SPOILER ALER: While she harbored the cells, she had never been sick. If she’d never contracted the disease, she argued, how could she be responsible for so many deaths? A trial ensued and with it the fate of Mary Mallon. show less