ANTONIA NOVELLO

The admirable Novello gets first-rate treatment in the new ``Hispanic Heritage'' series, aimed a notch or two higher than the picture-book crowd. From a sickly childhood in Puerto Rico to her leap to the top, the first female, first Hispanic Surgeon General is depicted in glowing terms. To make her subject accessible for this age group, Hawxhurst includes such details as Novello's wish to specialize in kidney treatment after an aunt died of kidney disease, and later, as a pediatrician, her becoming so upset by the sick children she saw that she often cried. The book is fairly well designed, incorporating rather stock b&w and color photos, though there are two confusingly placed blocks in just slightly smaller type (``Surgeon General C. Everett Koop'' and ``Hispanic-American Health'') that interrupt the narrative. Also, the author's knowledge that Novello was thinking about her childhood during her swearing-in ceremony seems dubious since no sources are cited. Still, a readable entry in a welcome series that also features Sim¢n Bol°var and Benito Juarez—as ably handled, with the same caveats. Chronology; further reading; index. (Biography. 7-9)