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An American Crisis
by John Woodrow Cox
Based on the acclaimed series - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - an intimate account of the devastating effects of gun violence on our nation's children, and a call to action for a new way forward.
In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection—both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava's best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun's father had been shot to death outside of the boy's elementary school. Ava's and Tyshaun's stories are extraordinary, but not unique. In the past decade, 15,000 children have been killed from gunfire, though that number does not account for the kids who weren't shot and aren't considered victims but have nevertheless been irreparably harmed by gun violence.
In Children Under Fire, John Woodrow Cox investigates the effectiveness of gun safety reforms as well as efforts to manage children's trauma in the wake of neighborhood shootings and campus massacres, from Columbine to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Through deep reporting, Cox addresses how we can effect change now, and help children like Ava and Tyshaun. He explores their stories and more, including a couple in South Carolina whose eleven-year-old son shot himself, a Republican politician fighting for gun safety laws, and the charlatans infiltrating the school safety business.
In a moment when the country is desperate to better understand and address gun violence, Children Under Fire offers a way to do just that, weaving wrenching personal stories into a critical call for the United States to embrace practical reforms that would save thousands of young lives.
"[A] hard-hitting report on the impact of gun violence on American children...Balancing sound research with moving profiles of victims and activists, Cox makes an impeccable case for how to solve the problem and why it's essential to do so now." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A difficult but important book, refusing to allow its readers to look away from the true human cost of America's continued failure to protect its children from gun violence." - Booklist
"A carefully reasoned, compelling, and persuasive study of a crisis that requires immediate attention." - Library Journal
"Cox shines a light on America's gun violence crisis through deeply personal and profoundly affecting stories of the children who live with its everlasting repercussions." - Newsweek
"Cox adapts his groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize–nominated series in this harrowing and illuminating account of gun violence in America, told through the children witnessing (and traumatized by) it, interwoven with an analysis of the government's profound failure to protect them." - Buzzfeed, Most Anticipated Books Of 2021
"Children Under Fire is a major accomplishment. Anyone who cares about the problem of guns in America—and we all should—will find in John Woodrow Cox's work fresh insights and suggestions for common-sense solutions. This deeply reported, impressive book is sure to be one of the most important of the year." - Dan Rather, journalist and author of What Unites Us
"John Woodrow Cox has dedicated years of his life and career to covering some of the most difficult and important stories of our time about how trauma—particularly in the aftermath of gun violence— impacts everyday Americans. His humanity and attention to detail breathes life into statistics and enables him to embody his subjects, drawing readers into the narratives he weaves and rendering them altered by the end. John's stories will never leave your conscience, nor should they." - Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, and author of Fight Like a Mother
"This heartbreakingly beautiful work brings us into the minds of children like Ava & Tyshaun, helping us to better understand that the scars of gun violence are not just physical. Their unforgettable stories are sure to inspire calls for action, as the book makes an eloquent case that the time has come to pass meaningful reforms to address America's gun violence crisis." - Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
This information about Children Under Fire was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Woodrow Cox is a staff writer at the Washington Post. He was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing and has won Scripps Howard's Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Storytelling, the Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, and Columbia Journalism School's Meyer "Mike" Berger Award for human-interest reporting, among other honors. He attended the University of Florida, where he has taught narrative writing and currently serves on the Department of Journalism's Advisory Council. He lives outside Washington, DC, with his wife, Jenn.
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