A compelling introduction to a passionate and tenacious Chinese researcher.
A picture-book biography about the persistent Chinese researcher whose medical discovery has saved millions of lives.
In 1969 Tu Youyou, a researcher at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing, was chosen to be a part of a research group to find a cure for chloroquine-resistant malaria. Spread by mosquitoes, this life-threatening disease was making people sick around the world. Using her subject’s given name, Daemicke describes how Youyou’s dedication to both traditional and modern medicines sprang from a life-changing battle with tuberculosis as a teen. In her search for a malaria cure, her observations and openness to traditional remedies led her to the plant qinghao (sweet wormwood). Many experiments failed, but her 191st experiment was finally successful! Youyou led her team to create the medicine artemisinin, also called qinghaosu in Chinese. Her contribution to the project was obscured for decades, but in 2015 she became the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize. This inspiring picture-book biography provides a much-needed counterpoint to harmful Sinophobic rhetoric around the origins of Covid-19. Brief text focuses completely on the linear story of Youyou’s dedicated search for a malaria cure, with a mention that during her research, male researchers weren’t happy with her lack of results or her leadership. Round shapes and bright colors create inviting illustrations with cartoonish characters. Nearly all characters are depicted as Chinese.
A compelling introduction to a passionate and tenacious Chinese researcher. (bibliography, author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-8111-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
An amiable point-counterpoint for budding animal lovers/haters.
Forty-two creatures of ill repute, from scorpions to hyenas, put on their best faces and protest that they’re just misunderstood.
In paired double-page spreads, Corrigan first presents for each animal the case for considering it scary or gross, then, with the page turn, allows it to contradict itself. “I’m creepy and I’m crawly,” a spider supposedly gloats. “I spin webs from my butt and leave them in places where I KNOW you’ll get stuck in them.” In the following spread, the spider points out that “Only half of my kind spin webs, and we really, REALLY don’t want you to get stuck in them!” Along with pointing to roles in the natural order and including many crowd-pleasing references to butts and poop, these counterarguments tend to run along the lines of the rat’s “I’m a fluffy little SWEETIE!” and the toad’s “I am a plump lump of CUTENESS!” Each testimonial is backed up by a box of background information baldly labeled “FACTS.” Readers may find the chorus of smiley faces and claims of adorability unconvincing, but they will at least come away with more nuanced impressions of each creepy-crawly. The humorous cartoon illustrations don’t measure up to the in-your-face photos of Seymour Simon’s classic Animals Nobody Loves (2001), but this gallery of beasties unfairly regarded as “icky and ewwy and downright gross” is considerably broader.
An amiable point-counterpoint for budding animal lovers/haters. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-4748-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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Playfully persuades the most rock-averse readers to love rocks.
This metafictional picture book about the science of rocks is saved by a child who jumps in to convince readers—and the book itself—that rocks are fascinating.
“This is a book about geology!” the first spread exclaims. A rock is declared “so rock-like” and “hard” before the narrator realizes that rocks “don’t really do much” and gives up, announcing “THE END.” But before readers can shut the book, a black girl with frizzy hair and large eyes calls out from the white space, “Wait!” In a back and forth with the narrator, the young scientist keeps the book going by pointing out that all the exciting topics the narrator is ready to move on to (volcanoes, diamonds, or fossils) are all a part of geology. The girl, who happens to be president of the rock club, takes on the challenge of making the narrator love rocks. Their humorous, tongue-in-cheek interaction will keep children entertained, all while educating readers about the science of geology, from the rock cycle to the process by which gemstones are formed. Chock full of facts, diagrams, and examples, including fun end pages, this book will reward readers who return to it frequently. Bold lines, lively colors, and clever use of white space make for an eye-catching read.
Playfully persuades the most rock-averse readers to love rocks. (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-451-48095-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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