Publishers Weekly
03/21/2016
This wrenching yet hopeful book puts a face on an international initiative, Scaling Up Nutrition, to solve the complex problem of child stunting, mortality, and malnutrition. The title refers to the critical period from conception to age two, when malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, disease, and parental misinformation pose a heightened risk to children. In Uganda, we meet Aron, whose mother’s first child died in infancy, but who is himself thriving with an early diet of biofortified orange sweet potatoes and high-iron beans. Venturing to Chicago, Thurow describes a teenage mom waking up to find that a nurse has fed her baby a bottle of formula, undermining her breast-feeding efforts. And in the story of baby Anshika, an Indian father learns to overcome a cultural preference for male children in order to help his wife and five daughters thrive. Thurow’s powerful and persuasive account concludes by stating that the Scaling Up Nutrition campaign is “not just about better nutrition or cleaner water or a new toilet or a bed net or breakthrough vaccines alone. It’s about how they all join up together.” Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May)
From the Publisher
Malnutrition is often called a silent emergency, because it can be hard to see the damage it does to children around the world. In The First 1,000 Days, Roger Thurow makes readers sit up and take notice. He takes us to the four corners of the world—from the streets of Chicago to the villages of northern Uganda—to show how the right nutrition helps children not just survive, but thrive.— Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
"[Roger Thurow] gives an intimate look at the struggles many women face...Poverty, lack of training, and prejudice are at the heart of the world's malnutrition problems...Thurow provides just enough grim facts on infant and mother mortality, the scarcity of food, sanitary conditions for birthing, and the general plight of impoverished families to garner sympathy without being melodramatic, and he also shows how women and children thrive under the right conditions. In today's global society, the children of the world need a voice. Thurow has spoken and made the issue clear: children everywhere need better food and water if they are going to grow into healthy adults."—Kirkus Reviews
Library Journal
04/15/2016
Journalist Thurow (senior fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; The Last Hunger Season) presents the experiences of four mothers and their children in Uganda, India, Guatemala, and Chicago to demonstrate the variety of issues that affect mothers' ability to ensure their children reach their full potential. According to the World Health Organization, one out of four children under the age of five is "stunted" owing to poor nutrition, unclean environments, poverty, lack of health-care access, and poor caregiver simulation during the first 1,000 days of life. Getting nutrients to mothers and young children became a top development goal and led to the creation of the 1,000 Days movement in 2010. Among its goals is to reduce the number of stunted children under age five by 40 percent by 2025. Thurow notes that this book is "not an exercise in scientific or academic rigor; rather, it is a journalistic narrative built of anecdotes and observations and research, as well as story telling by the women and their families." VERDICT Recommended for academic libraries focusing on social justice and public policy.—Karen Venturella Malnati, Union Cty. Coll. Libs, Cranford, NJ
