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Raising Elijah
Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis
Description
Nothing could be more important than the health of our children, and no one is better suited to examine the threats against it than Sandra Steingraber. Once called “a poet with a knife,” she blends precise science with lyrical memoir. In Living Downstream she spoke as a biologist and cancer survivor; in Having Faith she spoke as an ecologist and expectant mother, viewing her own body as a habitat. Now she speaks as the scientist mother of two young children, enjoying and celebrating their lives while searching for ways to protect them — and all children — from the toxic, climate-threatened world they inhabit
Each chapter of this engaging and unique book focuses on one inevitable ingredient of childhood — everything from pizza to laundry to homework to the “Big Talk” — and explores the underlying social, political, and ecological forces behind it. Through these everyday moments, Steingraber demonstrates how closely the private, intimate world of parenting connects to the public world of policy-making and how the ongoing environmental crisis is, fundamentally, a crisis of family life.
Each chapter of this engaging and unique book focuses on one inevitable ingredient of childhood — everything from pizza to laundry to homework to the “Big Talk” — and explores the underlying social, political, and ecological forces behind it. Through these everyday moments, Steingraber demonstrates how closely the private, intimate world of parenting connects to the public world of policy-making and how the ongoing environmental crisis is, fundamentally, a crisis of family life.
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Praise
St. Petersburg Times, 4/17/11
“A biologist's memoir of protecting her family from a wide range of environmental hazards—and learning to make the best and cheapest organic pizza.”
SEHN Networker, April 2011
“Read this for the kids in your life…This is a very funny book on hair-raisingly serious topics.”
InfoDad.com, 4/28/11
“Steingraber's narrative structure for this book is attractive: an ecologist, she looks at the ‘ecology' of her own family as she discusses both home-centered and public-policy issues.”
Hudson Valley News, 4/20/11
Organic Valley blog, 5/11/11
“[Steingraber] has a rare knack for making dry research data come to life.”
Library Journal, 6/3/11
“[A] compelling and graceful call to arms…Steingraber combines the best of humorous science writers like Mary Roach with the soaring beauty of writers like Terry Tempest Williams. Fans of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed should flock to Elijah.”
CYE Journal (Children, Youth and Environments Center), Winter 2011
“Steingraber takes us directly through the trepidation—and the wonder—that many parents experience today…Steingraber gives detailed information while at the same time providing hope…She guides parents toward meaningful actions at home (buying local and organic when possible, avoiding certain kinds of products, gardening in the context of systems change, moving toward behaviors that require no more than human energy), but helps us see when these efforts are simply not enough and policy reform and activism is essential.” Quarterly Review of Biology, March 2012
“Steingraber unleashes the accumulating evidence that the current environmental crisis affects children disproportionately…Historical perspectives and modern scientific findings are skillfully interwoven with autobiographical accounts that are at times verbose, at time humorous, but always engaging. Complicated science is made easy through the use of metaphors…[A] bold book…[that] demands reflection and action.”
Terrain.org, Fall/Winter 2012
“A book that is at once fascinating and frightening, lyrical and logical, funny and powerful.”
LVNtoRN.net
“Top 50 Must Read Books for Nurses in 2012
Fit Pregnancy, June/July 2011
“[Steingraber's] tales keep readers engaged while illustrating the relationship between our nation's chemical regulation (or lack thereof}and our kids' current and future health.”
“[Steingraber's] tales keep readers engaged while illustrating the relationship between our nation's chemical regulation (or lack thereof}and our kids' current and future health.”
Reference and Research Book News, June 2011
“A conversational memoir about the environmental threats our children face.”
Alternatives Journal, June 2011
“[Steingraber is] arguably the best environment and human-health writer of our age…Like [Rachel] Carson, Steingraber is sounding alarms about chemical pollutants in the best way she knows: through her formidable talents as a writer, storyteller and explainer of things scientific.”
“[Steingraber is] arguably the best environment and human-health writer of our age…Like [Rachel] Carson, Steingraber is sounding alarms about chemical pollutants in the best way she knows: through her formidable talents as a writer, storyteller and explainer of things scientific.”
EuphoriaBaby.com, 7/6/11
“An interesting and worthwhile read…A book that shares serious, often disturbing information can at the same time be so personal and empowering…If you want to be an informed parent this book is something you won't want to miss.”
Rethinking Schools, Fall 2012
“A personal, poignant, and angry book that chronicles Steingraber's efforts to defend her—and everyone's—children against the manufactured toxins that insinuate themselves into our lives. This is not so much a handbook to protect one's own child as it is a call to collective action to protect all our children.”
Wildlife Activist, Autumn 2012 “A thought provoking and interesting book about the environmental challenges of our day…Meticulously researched…Everyone who cares about the future of children should read this book.”
“A personal, poignant, and angry book that chronicles Steingraber's efforts to defend her—and everyone's—children against the manufactured toxins that insinuate themselves into our lives. This is not so much a handbook to protect one's own child as it is a call to collective action to protect all our children.”
Named to Saratoga Living's “Good Reads for 2013: A Holiday Gift Guide for Book Lovers” list
Wildlife Activist, Autumn 2012
E: The Environmental Magazine, February 2013
“[Steingraber] is the Rachel Carson of our time…She is a biologist who crusades against chemicals [and] an author who writes eloquently about their consequences.”Energy Times (website), 5/6/13
“Steingraber's lyrical prose alternates between domestic affairs and those of wider scope…Raising Elijah is a tribute to the joys of home—and a call to action.”
Bellingham Herald, 5/12/13
“An informative and entertaining book.”
The Ecologist (UK), 7/7/11
“Combining hard science with a sympathetic approach to the realities of family life; Raising Elijah is one of the most important books you'll ever read…Meticulously researched…A genuine, all-encompassing environmental study…Raising Elijah is that rare beast that combines hard data and approachable intimacy. At heart, it is an inspirational personal journey, a tale of activism at family level. It is perhaps the most essential book a parent can read this year.”
“Combining hard science with a sympathetic approach to the realities of family life; Raising Elijah is one of the most important books you'll ever read…Meticulously researched…A genuine, all-encompassing environmental study…Raising Elijah is that rare beast that combines hard data and approachable intimacy. At heart, it is an inspirational personal journey, a tale of activism at family level. It is perhaps the most essential book a parent can read this year.”
Spirituality & Practice (website)
“With great bravado and a firm grasp of ecology and biology, Steingraber runs down all the challenges she and her two children, Elijah and Faith, face in the toxic environment of upstate New York over a six-year period.”
“With great bravado and a firm grasp of ecology and biology, Steingraber runs down all the challenges she and her two children, Elijah and Faith, face in the toxic environment of upstate New York over a six-year period.”
BookPage, August 2011
“Read this book…Steingraber's lyrical descriptions of everyday family life and its connections to ‘urgent public health issues' are astonishing.”
“Read this book…Steingraber's lyrical descriptions of everyday family life and its connections to ‘urgent public health issues' are astonishing.”
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Fall 2011
“Steingraber speaks here as a warrior, a parent determined to protect her children—and all children—from the polluted and climate-challenged world they have inherited.”
Internet Review of Books, 3/25/11
“Terrifying and empowering…[Steingraber] skillfully weaves common domestic duties and scenes into and around the complex science, economic, and societal factors that have contributed to our current environmental crisis (and if you have any doubt that it is a crisis, you really need to read this book)…Knowledge is power. Raising Elijah is an excellent starting point for parents who want to know so they can protect their children from the dangers around them.”
New York Journal of Books, 4/15/11
“One part memoir and one part educational treatise, and thoroughly informative and entertaining…Steingraber has taken a work that could have been a dry and didactic expository and turned it into a fluid, intimate narrative—sometimes funny, always entertaining and definitely illuminating. It's a book that everyone—parents and otherwise—should avail themselves of for the good of those they care about.”
“Terrifying and empowering…[Steingraber] skillfully weaves common domestic duties and scenes into and around the complex science, economic, and societal factors that have contributed to our current environmental crisis (and if you have any doubt that it is a crisis, you really need to read this book)…Knowledge is power. Raising Elijah is an excellent starting point for parents who want to know so they can protect their children from the dangers around them.”
New York Journal of Books, 4/15/11
“One part memoir and one part educational treatise, and thoroughly informative and entertaining…Steingraber has taken a work that could have been a dry and didactic expository and turned it into a fluid, intimate narrative—sometimes funny, always entertaining and definitely illuminating. It's a book that everyone—parents and otherwise—should avail themselves of for the good of those they care about.”
Ms., Spring 2011
“Steingraber's narrative is personal and political, funny and smart. She shows us that feminism and motherhood are not at odds; combined, they make for heroes…Raising Elijah is a call to arms, a cry for the moral solidarity that we must forge to prevent environmental degradation and its assault on children's health.”
KeepTapWaterSafe.org, 9/13/11
“It might be the most important parenting book you'll ever read….Detailed and sobering…The facts are compelling unto themselves, yet her fluid prose is animated with personal anecdotes—all the better to elucidate the connection between corporate poisoning of the biosphere and our burgeoning public health crises. Raising Elijah also raises hope.” Metapsychology Online Reviews, 9/13/11
“A fascinating and moving story about a parent's struggle to protect her child's health and wellbeing while still planning for his future in a world full of environmental dangers…Steingraber writes in a witty, poetic fashion, easily drawing connections between the environmental crisis and children's health…The book is one of the most fascinating and well-written pieces concerning the environmental crisis that I have read.”
Metropolis, 9/20/11
“As a writer, Sandra Steingraber has the eloquence and urgency of Rachel Carson. As a biologist, she has a fiercely acute perspective on how human health is affected by the many outputs of so many clever human inventions…In 10 elegantly framed chapters, Steingraber gives both a personal account of a family attempting to live a healthy life in upstate New York and a scientist's look at the issues that make that so very challenging. The combination is powerful.”
Story Circle Book Reviews, 12/13/11
“Part lyrical parenting memoir, part hard-hitting, meticulously researched advocacy, Raising Elijah is not a light read. But if you care about the health of our children and the planet that nourishes all of us, it's darn near essential…This is a powerful and empowering book: take it slowly and let Steingraber's facts and passion for a healthy world seep in and become part of your understanding; let them guide your daily choices in life…Steingraber uses memoir to introduce facts, and does it so effectively that the reader is sucked right in…A compelling and surprisingly hopeful work—one that will stick with you long after you've turned the final page.”The Christian Century, 12/27/11
“A frightening read. I was tempted to put the book down several times but kept returning because of the author's passion not only for the health of children but for the intricacies of nature, the human body and family life.”
Environmental Working Group's Enviroblog, 11/8
“Give it to a fellow parent when you're done.”
The Weekly Harvest, 7/29/11
“Through a combination of scientific evidence and anecdotes plucked from her family life, she demonstrates again and again how, as individuals, our efforts to safeguard our homes so that our exposure is limited are not enough.”
Valley Advocate, 10/6/11
“Raising Elijah does many things, and does them well. It's a book about science that makes the topic accessible without leaving the reader feeling as if she's being spoken down to. That's thanks, in no small part, to Steingraber's gift as a writer.”
Herizons, Fall 2011
“Steingraber combines compelling statistical evidence with beautiful writing to create an inspiring read…If you despair at the state of the planet and wonder how you can understand complex environmental problems, including climate change, while taking actions against them, this book is for you.”
Santa Monica Public Library, “Green Prize for Sustainable Literature,” September 2012
Booklist, 3/15/11
“Steingraber writes passionately about the things that matter most to her, her family and the environment…smoothly shifting from events in her life to a broader view…Steingraber wants to change the world even as she remains firmly planted in the neighborhood, seeking a way to make life better than most of us have come to expect.”
Buffalo News, 3/1/11
“Writing as both a scientist and mother of two children…Steingraber cites links between rising chronic childhood diseases and toxic chemical exposures. She takes a broad view, looking at increases in the prevalence of asthma, learning disabilities and autism, as she tries to understand her own household and life as a mom.”
“Writing as both a scientist and mother of two children…Steingraber cites links between rising chronic childhood diseases and toxic chemical exposures. She takes a broad view, looking at increases in the prevalence of asthma, learning disabilities and autism, as she tries to understand her own household and life as a mom.”
Power of One Woman Blog, 3/29/11
“Through her newest book…Sandra has once again provided us, through well-documented case studies, the opportunity to examine our lifestyles choices and our surrounding environments…Sandra and her stories are gifts: golden information for busy parents who do not have the time for months of research.”
“Through her newest book…Sandra has once again provided us, through well-documented case studies, the opportunity to examine our lifestyles choices and our surrounding environments…Sandra and her stories are gifts: golden information for busy parents who do not have the time for months of research.”
Publishers Weekly, 4/4/11
“A persuasive, personal call to action.”
