In 2014, Flint, Michigan, was a cash-strapped city that had been built up, then abandoned by General Motors. As part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Then it got worse: children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Citizens of Flint protested that the water was dangerous. Despite what seemed so apparent from the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city's faucets, officials refused to listen. They treated the people of Flint as the problem, not the water, which was actually poisoning thousands.

Through interviews with residents and intensive research into legal records and news accounts, journalist Candy J. Cooper, assisted by writer-editor Marc Aronson, reveals the true story of Flint. Poisoned Water shows not just how the crisis unfolded in 2014, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, the beliefs and attitudes that fueled it, and how the people of Flint fought—and are still fighting—for clean water and healthy lives.

Candy J. Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. She has been a staff writer for four newspapers, including the The Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Examiner. Her work has appeared in the The New York Times, The Columbia Journalism Review and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among other publications. She has written several nonfiction books for classroom use.

Marc Aronson has been an editor, publisher and author of books for younger readers for over thirty years and was the winner of the first Robert L. Sibert award from the American Library Association for excellence in youth nonfiction. He earned his doctorate in American History at NYU and is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information where he trains future librarians to work with children and teenagers. Marc lives with his wife, and sometime co-author, Marina Budhos and their two sons in Maplewood, NJ.

Keishaun Wade is a resident of Flint, MI and is featured in Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation. He is a sophomore at Cornell University studying urban and regional studies and inequality studies.

About Montclair Bounce:
Connecting with Community & Creatively Meeting Life’s Ups and Downs. Explore Montclair Bounce’s playful, arts, educational and supportive online events and resources at montclairbounce.org.

Candy J. Cooper with Marc Aronson, "Poisoned Water"