An intriguing look at the costs to children’s health wrought by bad information and poor parenting.
A pediatrician examines the rise of once-contained and nearly extirpated diseases, especially measles.
Thanks to widespread vaccination programs in the 1950s and 1960s, writes Ratner, diseases such as rotavirus and strep largely disappeared, so much so that pediatric residents often “go through years of training without ever seeing a child with either of these infections.” Just so, polio had almost disappeared until recently. This describes the situation in the developed, wealthy world, Ratner hastens to add: There is a strong differential in childhood diseases between rich and poor communities, and this should not be so. “Every single child diagnosed with measles anywhere in the world represents a system failure—an inexcusable unforced error,” he urges. That system failure has to do with money: Ratner examines the disease patterns in rich and poor neighborhoods in Texarkana, where “living on the wrong side of State Line Avenue can be hazardous to your health.” Money is one issue, and so is the anti-vaccine movement, which fearfully depicts vaccinations as instruments of government control. The result: Whereas in 1994 the world “was on its way to being measles-free,” we see frequent outbreaks in the U.S. alone, particularly in schools. Much of the anti-vaccine, anti-masking, anti-lockdown mentality draws on misinformation and disinformation, Ratner holds, to say nothing of activists such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been in the habit of “ghoulishly spreading unfounded anti-vaccine messages in an attempt to ensure that no tragedy would go to waste.” Noting that “the time to secure furniture to the wall is before a child starts pulling up on it,” Ratner closes by arguing that good science-based education should be put to work to supplant bad information and bad intentions—which, sadly, would seem to be wishful thinking.
An intriguing look at the costs to children’s health wrought by bad information and poor parenting.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593330869
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avery
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit.
The longtime Hollywood actor looks back.
“What does it mean to be a ham?” asks the author, rhetorically. “Was I a ham? I was naturally and inordinately theatrical. I liked to carry on. I liked attention. I liked extravagant speech. I liked to emote. I liked to talk.” All of these qualities are abundantly evident in Kilmer’s memoir, which is as much a spiritual journey as it is a chronicle of his life and career. The author recounts the depth of his Christian Science faith, his formative years in a family of privilege in Los Angeles, his teenage romance with fellow actor Mare Winningham (“my first real girlfriend”), his training and rebellion at Juilliard, and his decision to leave Broadway for Hollywood. There, he writes, “I was not yet a burgeoning talent but ‘Cher’s lover,’ ” when she was in her mid-30s and he in his early-20s. After scoring big with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Kilmer turned down Blue Velvet and Dirty Dancing: “Neither part spoke to me.” He played Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, which he considers “one of the proudest moments of my career.” Marlon Brando and Sam Shepard went from being idols that Kilmer worshipped to becoming friends. He was slated to star as Batman in three films but jumped ship after Batman Forever, which he considers “so bad, it’s almost good.” He married and divorced British actor Joanne Whalley and wooed Daryl Hannah (“kind of the female me, only better”), and he wrote and starred in a one-man show as Mark Twain. When he was hospitalized for surgery due to his throat cancer, he prayed, he read Twain and Christian Science’s Mary Baker Eddy, and he “didn’t wrestle with my angels. I sang and danced with them.” Kilmer was never a shrinking violet, and he still refuses to wilt.
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit. (photos)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-4489-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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