Take My Hand
Perkins-Valdez, DolenFresh from nursing school, Civil Townsend is excited to be working for the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, with some of her earliest duties requiring her to administer a still experimental drug.
Even more startling to her is to discover that some of the intended recipients of the birth control injections are innocent children - Erica and India are only eleven and thirteen, and worse is to come when Civil challenges what is being meted out to them by a health system supposedly there to help them.
Inspired by real-life events of the 1970s, this is a powerful story both horrifying and hopeful, that wrestles with reproductive injustice, medical ethics and racism.
Pages
352
352
Year
2022
2022
Reviews
23-05-2024
Unanimously we scored this book a 5. A few comments from a great discussion - "Horrific, very upsetting, an excellent book, had no idea unconsented sterilisation took place in the USA, Ralf v Weinberger was taking place while we were having children".
20-05-2024
An account of a shameful time in U.S. history which none of our group were aware of - we found this book very distressing but informative, and it led to a great discussion, especially about the belief of 'doing the right thing'.
09-05-2024
Rated very highly.
02-05-2024
Interesting, at times devastatingly so! We learnt a lot from reading 'Take My Hand' but the writing style was not amazing.
15-03-2024
All of our group liked the book and gave us plenty to discuss. We were inspired by Civil the compassionate black nurse who told the story from her perspective from a young age to decades later as a Doctor. A great read.
30-10-2023
We enjoyed this book immensely - quite immature writing but an interesting and informative story for all of us. So hard to believe that people can be so racist.