Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Michigan

Life in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung

I live with a stable of nightmares, Martha Mason writes, but hope keeps them in harness. Some might wonder how Martha could have clung to hope at all. In 1948, on the day of the funeral of her adored older brother Gaston, a quick victim of the great polio epidemic, Martha was struck with the same dreaded disease. After a year in hospitals, she was sent back to her home in the village of Lattimore in the cotton-growing hills of western North Carolina. She was completely paralyzed, with only her head protruding from an 800-pound yellow metal cylinder that breathed for her. Doctors told her parents that she likely wouldn't live for more than a year. But the doctors hadn't counted on Martha's will, or the hope that drives her still. An avid reader, she dreamed of being a writer, and after finishing high school in her iron lung, she went on to nearby Gardner-Webb College, then to Wake Forest University, where she was graduated first in her class. After college, Martha attempted to begin a career as a writer, dictating to her mother, who had devoted her own life to Martha's care. But her father suffered a massive heart attack, leaving him, too, an invalid. Her mother, caring for both, had little time for Martha's dictation. Technology revived Martha's dream. A voice-activated computer allowed her to write without assistance. She got it early in 1994 in a time of great despair. A devastating stroke had altered her mother's personality, causing her to turn on Martha, and eventually to revert to childhood. Martha had to become her mother's keeper, and to run a household from her iron lung. To help her deal with the crisis, Martha began writing about her mother's selfless love. As she wrote, she found herself telling her own story, without self-pity or sentimentality, and with her usual courage, grace, and humor. Breath will make readers laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. It is a breath-taking memoir, a powerful testament to the human spirit, and it proves Martha Mason to be a writer whose voice is likely to be long remembered.

Breath

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Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Virginia

A Parents' Choice Silver Honor Book

With her father on the frontlines of World War II, a young girl gains strength by joining her community's battle against the 1944 polio epidemic

Ann Fay Honeycutt accepts the role of "man of the house" when her father leaves because she wants to do her part for the war. She's doing well with the extra responsibilities when a frightening polio epidemic strikes, crippling many local children.
 
Her town of Hickory, North Carolina responds by creating an emergency hospital in three days. Ann Fay reads each issue of the newspaper for the latest news of the epidemic. But soon she discovers for herself just how devastating polio can be. As her challenges grow, so does her resourcefulness. In the face of tragedy, Ann Fay discovers her ability to move forward. She experiences the healing qualities of friendship and explores the depths of her own faithfulness to those she loves--even to one she never expected to love at all.
 
Based on the "Miracle of Hickory" Hospital in Hickory, North Carolina, Blue is at once a fascinating history of the 1944 polio epidemic and an inspiring coming of age tale for young and adult readers.

Blue

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I have other books about track & field available on my bookshelf!

New York

How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman

This award-winning true story of Black Olympic runner Wilma Rudolph, who overcame childhood polio and eventually went on to win three gold medals, is illustrated by Caldecott medal-winning artist David Diaz.



Before Wilma Rudolph was five years old, polio had paralyzed her left leg. Everyone said she would never walk again. But Wilma refused to believe it. Not only would she walk again, she vowed, she'd run. And she did run--all the way to the Olympics, where she became the first American woman to earn three gold medals in a single Olympiad. This dramatic and inspiring true story is illustrated in bold watercolor and acrylic paintings.

 

Wilma Unlimited

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Steve Stirling

If only I’d been given a sixty-cent dose of polio vaccine, none of this would have happened.…”
Born in Korea in 1956 soon after the end of the Korean War, Steve Stirling was stricken with polio at age one. Five years later, marital and financial struggles caused his father to abandon him at an orphanage. Shortly afterward, his three-year-old sister was left there as well.
The Crutch of Success tells Steve’s incredible story of early years in the orphanage, his adoption into a large, loving family in Alaska, and his determination to succeed. He earned degrees at Cornell and Northwestern universities, married the woman who was literally the answer to his prayers, and climbed the corporate ladder with several Fortune 500 companies.
Steve seemed to have it all…but his ambition was detrimental to his health, his family, and his soul.
Then God touched Steve and asked him to spend his life helping those in need. All of the experiences of his life, even polio, have prepared him for his role at MAP International—to bring life-saving medicines and health supplies to millions around the world.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)



Texas

From Polio to Purpose, Bringing Health & Hope to the World

The Crutch of Success

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Wes Tooke

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Nebraska

My Summer with Satchel Paige

Baseball legend Satchel Paige changes a boy’s life in this coming-of-age tale from the author of Lucky. When Nick is released from the hospital after suffering from polio, he is sure that his father will never look at him in the same way again. Once the best pitcher in youth league, Nick now walks with a limp and is dependent on a heavy leg brace. He isn’t sure he will ever return to the mound, never mind be the star he once was. When Nick starts working for Mr. Churchill, the owner of the semiprofessional team Nick’s dad plays for, he meets Satchel Paige, arguably the best pitcher in the world. Not allowed in the major leagues because of his skin color, Satchel teaches Nick that some things can be overcome with hard work and dedication, and that just because you’re down, you are most certainly not out. As Satchel and his unique teammates barnstorm toward a national baseball tournament, Nick wonders if he can really overcome what seems like the impossible and pitch again.

King of the Mound

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Tony Earley

Minnesota

A Novel

Both delightful and wise, Jim the Boy brilliantly captures the pleasures and fears of youth at a time when America itself was young and struggling to come into its own.

Jim the Boy

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Karen Bartlett

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Vermont

The Campaign to End Polio and Eradicate Epidemic Diseases

"No one will ever again die of smallpox. With the battle against that "most terrible of the ministers of death" won, an unprecedented humanitarian coalition has now turned to polio, malaria and measles."--Jacket flap.

The Health of Nations

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Stephanie True Peters

Discusses the cause of polio and the infection process, its history and search for a cure, and the course it took in the United States between 1900 and the early 1960s.

The Battle Against Polio

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Philip Roth

I rated this as fair because it does have some notes in it. Most are in pencil. 

Missouri

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Set in a close-knit Newark neighborhood during a terrifying polio outbreak in 1944, a “book [that] has the elegance of a fable and the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama” (The New Yorker)—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral. Bucky Cantor is a vigorous, dutiful twenty-three-year-old playground director during the summer of 1944. A javelin thrower and weightlifter, he is disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. As the devastating disease begins to ravage Bucky’s playground, Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: fear, panic, anger, bewilderment, suffering, and pain. Moving between the streets of Newark and a pristine summer camp high in the Poconos, Nemesis tenderly and startlingly depicts Cantor’s passage into personal disaster, the condition of childhood, and the painful effect that the wartime polio epidemic has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children.

Nemesis

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Elizabeth Berg

First Edition
Tupelo, Mississippi
1964
Civil rights
Poliomyelitis
Race relations
Caregivers 

California

Stricken by polio, Paige Dunn, a woman of remarkable free spirit, beauty, and intelligence, continues to raise her daughter, Diana, with the help of her caretaker Peacie, in novel about the power of love and the resilience of the human spirit, set against the backdrop of Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1964. Reader's Guide available. 125,000 first printing.

We Are All Welcome Here (1st Ed.)

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Maryn McKenna

Welcome to Hayden Haven! 😊

Are you new to Pango Books? If so, I have a special discount code for you: 

HAYDEN240269

It’s $5 off your first purchase at checkout! 🎉

Feel free to reach out if you need more photos, details about a book, or want to bundle two or more books. We’re here to help you create your perfect personal library! 📚

Illinois

On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

They are not household names, but over the years they were first to confront the outbreaks that became known as Hantavirus, Ebola virus, and AIDS. Now they hunt down the deadly threats that dominate our headlines: West Nile virus, anthrax, and SARS. In this riveting narrative, Maryn McKenna, the only journalist ever given full access to the EIS in its fifty-three-year history, follows the first class of disease detectives to come to the CDC after September 11. The first to confront not just naturally occurring outbreaks but the man made threat of bioterrorism. They are talented researchers, many with young families who trade two years of low pay and extremely long hours for the chance to be part of the group that has helped eradicate smallpox, push back polio, and solve the first major outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease, toxic shock syndrome, and E. coli O157.

Beating Back the Devil

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New Jersey

Rhode Island

David M. Oshinsky

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Indiana

An American Story

A history of the 1950s polio epidemic that caused panic in the United States examines the competition between Salk and Sabin to find the first vaccine and its implications for such issues as government testing of new drugs and manufacturers' liability.

Polio

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The Circus Train

A history of the 1950s polio epidemic that caused panic in the United States. 

Save this search

Martha Mason

Breath

Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Blue

Kathleen Krull; David Diaz (Illustrator)

Wilma Unlimited

Steve Stirling

The Crutch of Success

Wes Tooke

King of the Mound

Tony Earley

Jim the Boy

Karen Bartlett

The Health of Nations

Stephanie True Peters

The Battle Against Polio

Philip Roth

Nemesis

Elizabeth Berg

We Are All Welcome Here (1st Ed.)

Maryn McKenna

Beating Back the Devil

Philip Roth

Nemesis

Philip Roth

Nemesis

David M. Oshinsky

Polio

Amita Parikh

The Circus Train

David M. Oshinsky

Polio

Browse by categories

Save this search

Martha Mason

Breath

Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Blue

Kathleen Krull; David Diaz (Illustrator)

Wilma Unlimited

Steve Stirling

The Crutch of Success

Wes Tooke

King of the Mound

Tony Earley

Jim the Boy

Karen Bartlett

The Health of Nations

Stephanie True Peters

The Battle Against Polio

Philip Roth

Nemesis

Elizabeth Berg

We Are All Welcome Here (1st Ed.)

Maryn McKenna

Beating Back the Devil

Philip Roth

Nemesis

Philip Roth

Nemesis

David M. Oshinsky

Polio

Amita Parikh

The Circus Train

David M. Oshinsky

Polio