Top 10 Books on Children’s Health
It’s National Book Lovers Day — a day to curl up in your favorite worn chair, or awkwardly squeeze into the corner of a bustling coffee shop, with that book you’ve been meaning to read since the winter holidays. Seeing the stacks of not-yet-touched books in my apartment usually set off pains of guilt, resulting in me muttering some version of “it’s not you, it’s me” to my ignored, bounded, inanimate friends. But not today. Instead, I’ve decided to celebrate the many incredible reads that have influenced me and shaped my work in children’s health. And against my better instincts, I made a top 10 list (in no particular order).
10. Ryan White: My Own Story by Ryan White. For those who also got their start in public health through the HIV/AIDS crisis, this book needs no explanation. Ryan White — a teenager who was severely discriminated against after contracting AIDS from a blood transfusion — is often called the poster boy of the national AIDS crisis. He was, more appropriately, the conscience of the AIDS crisis. A raw unflinching voice calling for Americans to look at one another with shared humanity, Ryan White above all taught this country that children can be moral leaders.
9. Our Kids by Robert Putnam. Inequality of opportunity is inarguably the most pressing issue facing children today. It is also, unfortunately, a vast and complex issue that can be hard to wrap one’s arms around. Enter Robert Putnam to save the day. He seamlessly weaves together family stories and national data to create a portrait of kids in America today. And it will chill you to your bones.
8. Polio by David Oshinsky. The science nerd in me loves the detailed saga of how the polio vaccine was created (shout out to March of Dimes!), and the optimist in me loves the reminder that amazing feats are possible.
7. While We Were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention by David Hemenway. Written by one of my fave professors, an economist who allied with the public health crowd, this book is essentially an ode to the public health profession. And while it covers injuries of all kinds, it is clear that the primary beneficiaries of injury prevention have been children. As Hemenway concludes after discussing New York City’s ‘Children Can’t Fly’ campaign (aimed at reducing childhood falls from windows): society can successfully help parents protect their children.
6. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. A beautiful and heartbreaking reminder that the most fundamental component of health care is communicating with one another. When communication breaks down, whether for cross-cultural reasons or others, terrible things can happen.
5. Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss. An investigative look into one of the most pressing public health issues of our time.
4. $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn Edin. A favorite of the good folks at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this book shines a light on deep poverty in America. If Our Kids doesn’t convince you that income inequality is the biggest threat to children’s health and wellbeing — and the defining issue of our time — this book might.
3. Girls and Sex by Peggy Orenstein. A mentor of mine always laments that adolescent health needs are overwhelmingly ignored in children’s health discussions. “Everyone just wants to talk about cute babies,” he reminds me. He is absolutely right. And so I leapt for joy when Peggy Orenstein published this honest, compassionate book — based on hours upon hours of conversations with American teens — on girls and sex. While not about health care per se, Orenstein’s book is an excellent reminder of why innovative, high quality, adolescent-centered primary care is badly needed.
2. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. The premise seems fictional: Wes Moore, a Rhodes Scholar and decorated veteran, is at home in Baltimore when he discovers another Wes Moore — born just a few blocks away and a year apart — who is serving a life sentence for murder. This is much more than a memoir. It’s Moore grappling with how his life could turn out one way while other boys growing up in his poverty-stricken neighborhood had different fates. Given that Moore now leads the Robin Hood Foundation, his diagnosis and treatment of these challenges is worth paying attention to.
1. Health Care for Children edited by Ruth Stein. Dr. Stein published this book 20 years ago but it is as fresh as ever. In it she and her contributing authors (many are well known: Barbara Starfield, Sara Rosenbaum, Neal Halfon) identify the social and economic forces that shape children’s health; chastise the ‘non-systems’ of care in place for children and adolescents; emphasize the important role of public coverage in providing the foundation of health insurance for children; and call for improved quality of care. Above all, they critique an American political and policy culture that has largely been indifferent to children.
