Featured in the 2018 movie Science Fair!
A National Science Teachers Association Best STEM Book of 2017
In this acclaimed memoir, teen innovator and scientist Jack Andraka tells the story behind his revolutionary discovery.
When a dear family friend passed away from pancreatic cancer, Jack was inspired to create a better method of early detection. At the age of fifteen, he garnered international attention for his breakthrough: a four-cent strip of paper capable of detecting pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers four hundred times more effectively than the previous standard.
Jack's story is not just a story of dizzying international success; it's a story of overcoming depression and homophobic bullying and finding the resilience to persevere and come out.
His account inspires young people, who he argues are the most innovative, to fight for the right to be taken seriously and to pursue our own dreams. Do-it-yourself science experiments are included in each chapter, making Breakthrough perfect for STEM curriculum.
But above all, Jack's memoir empowers his generation with the knowledge that we can each change the world if we only have the courage to try.
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“Remarkably intimate.”
— USA Today, on Matthew Lysiak’s Newtown
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Jack Andraka was just a fifteen-year-old Maryland high school student when he invented an inexpensive early-detection test for pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers. Now, at eighteen, he has already won the 2012 Intel ISEF Gordon E. Moore Award, the 2012 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Youth Award, first place in the 2014 Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, and the 2014 Jefferson Award. He speaks to audiences across the globe about his personal story, his research, LGBT issues, and his ideas for STEM education reform. He has been featured in several documentaries, including Morgan Spurlock’s You Don’t Know Jack, as well as numerous radio, newspaper, and magazine articles.
Matthew Lysiak was a staff investigative reporter for the New York Daily News, where for ten years he covered national stories across the country, including the death of Trayvon Martin, the BP oil spill, the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords, and hundreds of other national stories. He is the author of Newtown and The Drudge Revolution and co-author of Breakthrough.
Kevin R. Free is an audiobook narrator and the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several AudioFile best narrations of the year selections. Known for his work with young-adult novels, he has read titles by Rick Riordan, Walter Dean Myers, and Joe Haldeman. In 2011 he was named a Best Voice in Young Adult and Fantasy from AudioFile magazine for his narration of Myers’ The Cruisers: Checkmate.