Poison Town

Fourteen-year-old Addie's town is built around a lead and zinc smelter. The company has done an extensive cleanup of its operations, but everything in the town still seems sick; even the crows are having trouble flying. Addie decides to find out if the smelter is still poisoning local residents, and to do that, she needs help. At first Addie is overlooked and treated as a child who wouldn't understand. She turns the adults' naivety to her advantage and confronts what most people in her town are too fearful to address. This novel allows young readers to confront climate anxieties while finding inspiration in how Addie takes action that is believable and realistic.

Elyssa Campbell's stories have been published in literary magazines in Canada and the United States. She is a teacher and self-identifies as having an ADHD brain. She grew up in a town with a smelter and now lives near Vancouver, Canada.