An adaption of the adult book of the same name (published in 2002) looks at Dr. Paul Farmer's work providing health care for impoverished people in Haiti and other parts of the world. Farmer's work, rooted in compassion, is fascinating from scientific, social, and ethical perspectives. With degrees in medicine and medical anthropology, his focus starts with his patients but expands to embrace the context of their lives. The nonprofit he founded, Partners in Health, began with his work in the central plains of Haiti creating a sophisticated medical clinic providing care to all. Treating patients there, he realized the need for systems to address global inequities in health care. In fact, Farmer's work treating patients informs everything else he does. Without it, he argues, his efforts to affect global health policy would be impossible. It's not enough to treat diseases like multi-drug-resistant TB while ignoring the poverty and other conditions that contribute to them. Farmer sees his work as a moral imperative, but that doesn't mean answers are always easy in terms of what do in specific situations. Troubling, challenging, thorny questions and arguments for and against different courses of action are part of his work with patients and with policy alike. The scope of his impact extends from the lives of the people he's treated to those affected by policies he's helped develop. It may also extend to young readers moved by his fierce commitment to preserving health and human dignity. (Ages 12-15)

Meet Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-educated doctor with a self-proclaimed mission to transform healthcare on a global scale. Tracy Kidder follows Farmer's quest as he focuses his attention on some of the world's most impoverished people and uses unconventional ways in which to provide healthcare, to achieve real results and save lives.