Atomic Farmgirl: Growing Up Right in the Wrong Place

by Teri Hein

Book Overview

Atomic Farmgirl is a wise, irreverent, deeply personal story of growing up right in the wrong place. The granddaughter of German Lutheran homesteaders, Teri Hein was raised in the 1950s and 1960s in rural eastern Washington. This starkly elegant landscape serves as the poignant backdrop to her story, for one hundred miles to the south of this idyllic, all-American setting lay the toxins -- both mental and physical -- of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618302417
• ISBN13: 9780618302413
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

First-hand Evidence

I look at Teri's book differently than others. I see first-hand evidence of distastrous effects of low dosage nuclear radiation. Teri mentions that in a few sq mile area where she grew up, a large % of people have died, or are suffering side effects, of nuclear fallout. I knew, or know, all of the people she refers to in these passages. I married a girl from there and I attended funerals for some of the victims. I am a 'downwinder'. I am not part of the class-action lawsuit that is finally going to court this month (May, 2005). But, I am still a downwinder. I suffer from acute thyroid disease, have battled cancer successfully and poor eyesight as a result of I-131 exposure (my conclusion). Teri's mortality and disease incidence data are statistically significant at pI hope this book motivates people to learn more about how and why a government will not accept responsibility or guilt for its actions in situations such as this.

A Good Read

I expected this book to focus on the environmental hazards of the Hanford Nuclear site. Instead, I was taken back to my childhood, growing up in the 60s. While the health issures surrounding the area are sad, I found myself smiling most of the time.The tempo can be slow, but I was glad I finished the book. Her explanation of telephone party lines, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and helping Dad with chores are three of my favorite sections.After reading this book, I had a better understanding of the joys and challenges of family farms. At the same time, I have more empathy for the victims and families of the apparent environmental contamination of the area.

extraordinary and haunting

I got this book because of a great review in Creative Loafing that called it "extraordinary and haunting." I couldn't agree more. It's literary, it's historical, it's funny, it's tragic, it's good. And talk about timely.....in these days of warped homeland security, this book gives a birds eye view of what that is all about. The new foreward for the paperback version is , in two words, very concerning.

Atomic farmgirl - a tribute to rural family courage

Teri Hein's book about growing up downwind of Hanford is a gem. Clean, honest recollections are buoyed up by elegant research into the area and the families that lived there. The facts are presented and the reader is allowed to draw his/her own conclusion about the impact of radiation exposure from Hanford. A gripping read that everyone in Washington should have in their library.

a funny, touching, and powerful book that hits close to home

The debate over the Hanford Nuclear reservation, and its effects on the environmental, medical, and spiritual health of the land and the people of the Pacific Northwest has been raging for years. Teri Hein puts a face, I should say, puts faces to that debate as she weaves a touching true story of growing up on a farm downwind from Hanford, where her family and surrounding families must live with the health effects of the nuclear age. It's a story of the land, the people, and the forces which can bring the ugly and tragic to the serene and beautiful. Don't pass this book up. As funny as it is sad. A quick read, that will not fade quickly.