Synergy: Exploring Health

HEALTH describes a person’s physical, mental, and social well-being. A person in good health is free from disease or injury.

To understand a concept, it’s useful to read a cluster of books related to a theme. Explore these recently published books for young people:

UNSEEN JUNGLE: THE MICROBES THAT SECRETLY CONTROL OUR WORLD written by Eleanor Spicer Rice and illustrated by Rob Wilson explores the science of microbes. Part of the Your Hidden Life series, this fact-filled, humorous work of nonfiction examines the fascinating microscopic world of these tiny organisms and impact your health and the life of other creatures. Chapters include microbes in the house, yard, food, and you! ARC courtesy of MIT Kids Press, an imprint of Candlewick Press.

THE OTHER PANDEMIC: AN AIDS MEMOIR by Lynn Curlee traced the AIDS pandemic from the 1970s through the 1990s telling the story of the author’s partner alongside the larger crisis. The book begins with examples of people with AIDS and a comparison with the COVID-19 years. It concludes with tributes and additional information about AIDS. ARC courtesy of Charlesbridge Teen, an imprint of Charlesbridge.

WHAT’S A GERM, JOSEPH LISTER?: THE MEDICAL MYSTERY THAT FOREVER CHANGED THE WAY WE HEAL written by Lori Alexander and illustrated by Daniel Duncan explores the history of surgery and how Lister proved that unsanitary conditions contribute to infections. Along the way, readers learn about germs and how scientific discoveries are made. This engaging, highly illustrated biography includes the perfect balance of humor, gore, and fascinating facts. ARC courtesy of Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Book Reviews: Germs

GERMS by Lesa Cline-Ransome is an informational picture book exploring the world of germs.

This colorfully illustrated text describes the history of germs, the scientists who learned about them and the different types of germs. It stresses both the good and bad that germs do. The author’s conversational style and the illustrator engaging visuals will appeal to young readers. The book concludes with additional information and a glossary.

Librarians will find this informational picture book to be a useful resource to the science collection. It could also serve as a read-aloud book to introduce students to the science of germs. Ask students to learn about one of the diseases introduced in the book.

To learn more about the author, go to http://lesaclineransome.com/.

Published by Henry Holt, an imprint of Macmillan on January 10, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Digital Spotlight: The Influenza Encyclopedia

The INFLUENZA ENCYCLOPEDIA is a collection of over 16,000 historical documents and photographs chronicling the epidemic of 1918.

Contents: Produced by the University of Michigan, this well organized project provides easy access to popular categories including people, places, organizations, and subjects. Users can also explore by 50 U.S. cities and towns or examine the image gallery. A key word search tool is also provided.

Classroom Connections: Teachers will find this resource to be an engaging way to explore the tragic events surrounding the 1918 influenza epidemic. Connect it with works of historical fiction and nonfiction books in the collection.

Featured Digital Objects:
Boston http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-boston.html
Cincinnati http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-cincinnati.html
New York City http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-newyork.html

To visit the collection, http://www.influenzaarchive.org/.

Digital Collection: National Library of Medicine

U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

Contents: The National Library of Medicine’s online resources include biomedical books, still images, videos, and more. The resources can be accessed by collection, subject, author, title, format, language, genre, or date.

Classroom Connections: From posters to videos, digital objects can bring science topics to life. Connecting medicine and history is an effective way to draw student interest to both science and history. Ask students to create a timeline of primary source documents tracing a topic such as cholera through history. Or, search for posters on a particular topic such as AIDS, malaria, or yellow fever and trace how the medical communications change over time.

Featured Digital Objects:
Cholera - https://goo.gl/yICgJn
Tropical Disease - https://goo.gl/OVW1G9
Public Health & War - https://goo.gl/A3xif8
Moving Pictures - https://goo.gl/FtFHgM

To visit the collection, https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/.

Book Review: The Memory Book

THE MEMORY BOOK by Lara Avery is a heart-breaking young adult novel exploring the life of a teen with dementia.

Sam McCoy is an outstanding high school student who discovers she has a rare genetic disorder causing memory loss and rapidly declining health. Told through short electronic diary entries, Sam uses the journal as a way for her to record and remember important events in her short life.

Librarians will find this title popular among a large teen audience who enjoy realistic, contemporary stories about teens facing medical challenges. The journal format along with the romance elements add to the appeal.

Published by Poppy, an imprint of Hachette on July 5, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: Flu Near You

FLU NEAR YOU is an informative and educational website focusing on community health in North America.

Users can identify where flu is more prevalent and also report instances of the flu.

Using data from the CDC, the Flu Map shows flu in your local area. The map can be expanded to show all of North America. Icons show areas exhibiting flu-like symptoms, any symptoms, and no symptoms.

The About section provides information about how the data is collected and who is sharing the data.

The News section features short articles about flu, prevention, and related health issues.

Librarians will find that this focused, easy-to-use website useful in teaching data literacy. The attractive format will appeal to students and the quality content will draw in teacher users.

To visit the website, go to https://flunearyou.org/.

Website Review: The Cancer Atlas

THE CANCER ATLAS is a website providing fascinating information about the global cancer landscape.

Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, World Health Organization, and the Union for International Cancer Control, the attractive and content-rich website contains sections focusing on different aspects of the problem.

The Data section provides access to an interactive map. Users view data based on metrics such as smoking prevalence, air pollution, or most commonly diagnosed cancer. This data can be presented on a world map or by specific country. Users can also display information on a list. A button is available to learn more about a particular metric. A comparison option is provided so users can compare data by country.

The Risk Factors section provides an overview to known risk factors along with specific factors such as tobacco, infections, diet and body composition, and UV radiation.

The Burden area discusses the global issues related to cancer noting issues in specific regions of the world.

The Taking Action area explores opportunities for cancer control.

Other areas include the History of Cancer and Glossary.

Librarians will find this highly-visual approach to cancer engaging for students. Use the website to promote your library’s many resources related to healthcare and cancer.

To visit the website, go to http://canceratlas.cancer.org/.

Website Review: BAM! Body and Mind

BAM! BODY AND MIND from the Center for Disease Control provides information and activities aimed at helping young people make healthy lifestyle choices.

Designed for children 9 to 13 years old, the website contains six sections: Diseases, Food and Nutrition, Physical Activity, Your Safety, Your Life, and Your Body; all are packed with information and activities. For example, the Disease section includes the Disease Detectives and Immune Platoon activities and more. Information about Asthma is found within Disease Detectives and more details are added in Meeting the Challenge in the Physical Activity Section. Acne and its treatment are explained in the Under the Microscope section of Your Body.

In the Teachers Corner, educators can quickly view lessons and activities, handouts, and recommended related materials. Teachers can use BAM! to provide interactive, informative and fun activities in their classrooms; activities that are linked to the national standards for science and health.

Librarians can partner with teachers to plan and deliver a healthy food activity. Setup a blender with needed ingredients and have students try the recipes for drinks and smoothies found in the Food & Nutrition section. Lots of other recipes are provided in Cool Treats. Pair this activity with a cookbook display featuring healthy recipes.

Visit and learn more about BAM! at http://www.cdc.gov/bam/

Book Review: Fuzzy Mud

FUZZY MUD by Louis Sachar is a fast-paced middle-grade ecological mystery exploring friendship, bullies, and a life-threatening biohazard.

A work of speculative fiction, the story revolves around three children who stumble upon a mutated microorganism with the potential to cause a global pandemic.

Sachar weaves together short, focused chapters with excerpts from Senate hearings to create a quick read for a broad audience. For such a short book, the author is able to create multi-dimensional characters and a believable plot.

Youth who enjoy the environmental mysteries of Carl Hiassen and Jean Craighead George will be drawn to this ecological thriller. While reluctant readers will enjoy this fast-paced, “skinny book”, it will also be popular with those who read school and friendship titles. The variety of themes make it a good choice for group discussions.

Librarians and teachers will find the timely environment issues to be good connections with STEM connections. Consider a display that includes medical and ecological mysteries along with works of nonfiction about the CDC and strange diseases.

Published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House on August 4, 2015.

Website Review: Kids Health

KIDS HEALTH is an outstanding, informational website for kids, teens, parents, and educators.

This award-winning website is sponsored by the non-profit health organization The Nemours Foundation and contains limited ads. It’s available in both English and Spanish versions.

The Parent section contains information and advice for parents on topics including general health, growth, infections, diseases, pregnancy, nutrition, behavior, school, first aid, and other topics.

The Kids section is aimed at children including topics related to How the Body Works, Puberty & Growing Up, Staying Healthy, Recipes & Cooking, Staying Safe, Health Problem, Illnesses & Injuries, Health Problems of Grown Ups, People, Places & Things That Help, and Feelings. There are also areas containing Q&A, movies, quizzes, games, and a medical dictionary for kids. Most of the pages include attractive visuals and interactive elements to engage users. The reading level and focus are appropriate for elementary and middle grades.

The Teens area stresses topics of interest to young adults including Body, Mind, Sexual Health, Food & Fitness, Disease & Conditions, Infections, School & Jobs, Drugs & Alcohol, Staying Safe, and Recipes. In addition, the Q&A page focuses on FAQs. The “hot topics” pages feature issues of particular interest such as Lyme Disease, Depression, and Volunteering.

The Educator section provides health-related lesson plans across grade and subject areas including discussion questions, activities, handouts, and quizzes.

Librarians will appreciate the many informational reading pages that can easily be tied to the Common Core standards. Some of the pages contain a LISTEN button that reads the page aloud. This is particularly useful for reluctant readers and those with reading challenges.

To keep up-to-date on website updates, be sure to subscribe to the free, weekly newsletter.

Both mobile and desktop versions of the website are available. The mobile version works well with handheld-devices and tablets.

To learn more, go to http://kidshealth.org/.

To access the teacher section, go to http://classroom.kidshealth.org/.

Book Review: Patient Zero and Red Madness

PATIENT ZERO by Marilee Peters tells a series of engaging true stories of the world’s scariest epidemics. Focusing on the courageous pioneers of epidemiology, each case follows the quest of a scientist to identify “patient zero”, the first person to contract and spread the disease. In each of the seven deadly diseases examined, scientists were able to build on the work of others to extend our knowledge in the hopes of preventing future catastrophes.

More people have died of disease than wars or natural disasters. The epidemics chronicled in this text include The Great Plague (1665), The Soho Outbreak (1854), Yellow Fever in Cuba (1900), Typhoid in New York City (1906), Spanish Influenza (1918), Ebola in Zaire, (1976), and AIDS in the U.S. (1980).

Peters’ writing style incorporates elements of mystery and horror to bring these compelling stories to life. Whether focusing on sympathetic victims like the infant in London who started the cholera epidemic or over-the-top characters such as Typhoid Mary, the cases are certain to jumpstart interest in other books related to disease and disaster. The glossary, index, and suggested readings are useful for youth readers.

Although students may be attracted to the layout and use of clipart, the book suffers from the lack of authentic primary source documents. Although the book points out that John Graunt collected health statistics, readers don’t get the chance to see his work. This omission would be a great opportunity to connect with online resources such as digital collections. Samuel Pepys’ diary accounts provide exciting insights into The Great Plague of 1665.

Maps play a central role in the world of many scientists seeking the elusive “patient zero.” Probably the best known is Dr. John Snow’s Mapping of the cholera epidemic of London. Check out an interactive map at http://goo.gl/Ff9qSw

Seeking online photographs is another way to enhance the book. The Library of Congress contains many excellent documents and photographs related to the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. Chronicling American contains fascinating newspaper articles published during the epidemic at http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/pandemic.html. For more ideas, go to The Great Pandemic at http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/

PATIENT ZERO mentions Google’s Flu Trends at http://www.google.org/flutrends/. Use this opportunity to introduce youth to this exciting source of data.

This book is particularly timely given the recent Ebola epidemics in Africa. Encourage youth to keep up-to-date on an interactive map from Healthmap at http://healthmap.org/ebola/

Another, recently published book RED MADNESS (2014) by Gail Jarrow focuses on the pellagra epidemic of the early 20th century in the American South caused by vitamin deficiency disease. Scientists found that enriching the diet with niacin helped to resolve the problem.

To learn more about maps in nonfiction literature, check out my articles in the October and December 2014 issues of Teacher Librarian.

Publisher ARC used for review.