Phenomenal adaptation! This is a heart-wrenching book that I had to walk away from several times. These women suffered more than any human being should have to endure.

It is not a light read, but I highly recommend it.

As I read the true story of the young women who worked painting watch dials with radium, over and over I saw businesses putting profits ahead of safety. It's a good book that causes me to think and ask questions. This book had me asking questions about whether it's possible to push businesses to proactively address issues without government oversight. These questions would lead to a good book discussion. Although this version is advertised as the young readers edition, for ages 8-12, I doubt it would interest most readers younger than high school. At the same time, I recommend it to adults looking for a shorter read than the original adult version.

This is an incredibly moving true story of young female workers being asked to do a poisonous job (even though scientists had some inkling it was dangerous), and the attempts to discredit the sick and dying women. This is a young reader edition aimed at ages 8-12, and it's still pretty gruesome. Some students could handle this with no problem; others might find it too upsetting. It is an interesting bridge between science and reading, though.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

The Radium Girls: Young Readers’ Edition: The Scary but True Story That Made People Glow in the Dark by Kate Moore

The story is an adaptation of Kate Moore’s book for adults about the radium girls of the early 20th century. The book tells the fascinating story of the women who painted watch faces with radium paint to allow them to glow in the dark. The story is told in sections. The early portion shows the lives of the women and how much they enjoyed their jobs. As the book progresses, the book deals with a few of the women having unusual physical complaints. This section will definitely appeal to readers who enjoy a bit of mystery and gruesome facts. Slowly the women begin to discover that the radium used in the paint had settled into their bones and they would eventually lose their health battles to cancer. The final portion of the book deals with the women fighting in court to hold the companies responsible for their radium poisoning before their time runs out. .
The book is 400 pages. If the reader is interested in science, history, and gruesome facts, this is the book for them. The book is full of characters: dial painters, company executives, doctors, and lawyers. The number of character can become confusing at times, but the intriguing, true story keeps the reader interested.

A great read! I've read tje regular version of this book and I like that this makes it accesible to another reading demographic. The style was done well to reading more like a chapter book than a non-fiction which is so important for young readers.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

This story is heartbreaking yet so intriguing to read. History is dark and scary and this only proves it. Women doing their jobs to the best of their ability lost their jaws, their health and their life. It's brutal and scary!

This story is important to tell. I can't express it enough how insanely important it is to learn about these stories and learn from their mistakes. These women died but they don't need to die in vain. We need to learn to take care of each other and be as ethical as we can. Because, man... this book hurt. These excited young women just doing their best...

The scientific discoveries, the law suits, the fight to make sure radium poisoning was understood.... This book is one for the ages.

I haven't read the original YA Radium Girls, but this take was high on my radar because of the original. I can't tell if it holds up or if it's any better, but this book as a singular work is great! It's a long book for young readers though, just be aware.

Five out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This book is packed with information that spans various key players highlighting some of the key women who were dial-painters during the 1920s and suffered greatly due to radium poisoning. These women were ignored, lied to, and used, but they refused to stand down. It wasn't just one area--Orange, NJ--but spanned into Illinois and Connecticut. These communities were impacted and dependent upon the radium and watch industry, especially during the Great Depression. The fight these women faced with the larger corporations echo throughout the 50s and to today with the implementation of safety measure when handling radium (or any radioactive material) as well as the establishment of OSHA safety standards in the workplace.
The headers before each chapter helps in orienting the reader in the time and place, which is a good tool in non-fiction to ensure the reader has a sense of the timeline. Additionally, there is a list of key players in the beginning of the book as well as a succinct timeline at the end of the books.
There is so much in American history that goes unexplored in standard history classes and this is a great addition for young readers.

I read the original YA version of this title a few years ago and wished there was a version for younger kids. The story is so important, and kids can handle this sort of thing. The "girls" working in the factory where they painted airplane controls with radium were only a decade older than the targeted reader of this book.
Their story needs to be commonly known. Many people were aware of the danger they were in and kept it hidden to make money. We will keep repeating history if we don't teach it to kids.
I would hand this off to any reader in the 4th/5th grade and up.

This book is the young reader versions of the adult books. As a teacher I appreciate one being available as it’s an important story to tell. Radium was considered a wonder drug of. People thought it could cure illnesses, and its luminescent properties made it ideal for glow-in-the-dark watches and for dials and instruments of pilots during WWI. Women were employed to paint these devices, and you read with mounting horror of how they would lick the brushes, to get a neater finish. This book is an excellent introduction to the lives and deaths of these women. There are however a few issues, the first is the repeated use of the term ‘girl,’ these were intelligent young women. The second and biggest issue if the amount of time the author spends on telling us what these women looked like, their beauty, their fashions.......what does it matter?!
In a world where I repeatedly find myself trying to convince young girls that their looks don’t matter, that they should be valued for their brains and morality - this aspect was very frustrating. The scientific story is sound, but I have an issue from a feminist perspective regarding how this book is written .

I loved the simplicity, yet the honesty of this book. I love the story of the Radium Girls- I actually became interested after Karen and Georgia covered in on My Favorite Murder. I am an elementary school counselor and ALWAYS looking for books about strong fearless women. This is that book. The story is covered in simple, relatable language that is age-appropriate and not too difficult, but also not dumbed down. I loved this and I will be sharing with my students! Thanks so much for the ARC!

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 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 9/1/20.

To begin with, while newspapers of the times may have called the women who used radioactive paint to paint clock dials "radium girls," we now live in a time when we should be calling them women, because they were. Many may have been young, yes, but they were still working women who don't deserve to be remembered with the belittling name of "girls." Moore used "girls" in her original edition of this book and does so even more in this "young readers' edition," and it's disrespectful and infuriating.

I've read the non-young-readers' edition of this book, and came away from this edition confused as to who the author and publisher think the young readers' edition is for. The regular edition is perfectly fine for average readers ages 13 or so and up, and this young readers' edition lifts whole passages out of it without change. At the at the same time, this new edition includes new text that is astonishingly condescending to readers of, say, 8 and older. So the target audience for this is very unclear. The cutesy material added to dial down the ages for the marketing of the book is pretty horrifying given the seriousness of the topic.

As in the original edition, too, the author spends a lot of time detailing how pretty the dial-painters were, as if their beauty is what made it so awful that they died in the ways that that did, rather than the fact that they were human beings who were routinely lied to in their workplaces. Whether their hairstyles were "cute" or their smiles "shy" is objectifying and irrelevant.

Finally, the writing just isn't very good. It's often repetitive and full of tired phrases and cliches, and not terribly compelling. I can't in any good faith recommend this book or its original edition because of these myriad issues.