I've always been fascinated by polio since being a child and lining up for the sugar cube on what I now know are called "Sabin Sundays". And I read about fears that prevented summer gatherings and kept kids out of cities. I saw people that survived the disease wearing braces and saw pictures of iron lungs.

So I knew they eliminated polio by finding a vacine, but what caused it? How was it spread? What was the key to making this amazing progress?

It was hard to find a book that answered my questions and satisfied my curiousity, however, this book did a pretty good job. It focuses on the disease being a blip on America's radar and then exploding but never taking as many lives as cancer or heart disease, yet still haunting American summers.

A fascinating look at the fundraising side that used marketing techniques still in vogue today. Equal weight given to the scientists and labs that were the trenches. Some of it is dry and technical but not to excess.

I have some of my answers and found the "battle" between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin that paralled the "battle between the killed virus vacine and the live virus vacine.

You'll learn a great deal in this and be glad today's children don't face the scourge of polio.