"The Antidotes: Pollution Solution" by Dr. Patricia Mechael is an award-winning middle-grade book that combines an exciting eco-adventure with valuable life lessons. The story fosters STEM education, public health awareness, and environmental consciousness among young readers, making it an essential read for children and adults alike.

The Antidotes: Pollution Solution is the first in a series of science adventures for young readers who refuse to look away from the world's hardest problems — climate crisis, corporate cover-ups, and the question of what one determined group of kids can actually do about it.

Listen to a sample

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Patty and her son Gabriel talked about how things might have been different if children were more actively engaged. They created The Antidotes during long walks with their pandemic puppy.

Patty drew inspiration from a real experience: a team of young boys in South Sudan she had enlisted to map a two-year outbreak of a mysterious and often-fatal illness. The World Health Organization used those maps and quickly identified the disease as relapsing fever. The boys then launched a campaign to teach school children how to protect their families.

That story — of young people using science, creativity, and courage to solve a real public health crisis — became the heart of The Antidotes.

WHERE THE ANTIDOTES BEGAN

Praise for The Antidotes

Quote Gallery

Global warming. The climate crisis. Plastic-eating bacteria. These are only some of the issues that are tackled by author Patty Mechael in the deeply engaging and layered book, THE ANTIDOTES: The Pollution Solution. The first in a series of middle-grade science adventure books, it addresses various issues via a group of diverse friends who come together to solve problems arising from a corporate experiment that ends badly. An engrossing, superbly paced read right till the end.

—Rachel Randolph, Indiereader Review

Patty Mechael’s The Antidotes is the perfect book for young readers to feed their passion for science and the environment and make a commitment to try to make a positive impact on the planet. This inspirational book will encourage readers to take action and create a change in their homes and communities.

—Literary Titan Awards 5-Star Review

Congratulations to Patty Mechael!

The Antidotes: Pollution Solution is our latest Certified great Read!

—Reading With Your Kids Podcast

Unpredictable, exciting, and thoroughly engrossing… A page-turner.

—The Prairies Book Review

Encouraging Kids to Pursue STEM Issues in Exciting New Children’s Novel

-Book Trib.

Free Resources

Free Resource for Teachers: The Antidotes: Pollution Solution Classroom Activity and Discussion Guide
This free resource for Science and Reading teachers aims to help classroom teachers and reading specialists use the middle-grade STEM fiction novel, The Antidotes: Pollution Solution, to engage students in grades 4 through 7 in fun cross- disciplinary science, environment, public health, arts, and reading activities.