A Shot in the Arm! (Big Ideas That Changed the World #3)

by Don Brown (Author)

Award-winning author Don Brown explores the history of vaccines from smallpox to COVID-19 in this installment of the Big Ideas That Changed the World series

A Shot in the Arm! explores the history of vaccinations and the struggle to protect people from infectious diseases, from smallpox to perhaps humankind's greatest affliction to date to the COVID-19 pandemic. Highlighting deadly diseases such as measles, polio, rabies, cholera, and influenza.

Brown tackles the science behind how our immune systems work, the discovery of bacteria, the anti-vaccination movement, and major achievements from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who popularized inoculation in England, and from scientists like Louis Pasteur, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and Edward Jenner, the "father of immunology." Timely and fascinating, A Shot in the Arm! is a reminder of vaccines' contributions to public health so far, as well as the millions of lives they can still save.

Big Ideas That Changed the World is a graphic novel series that celebrates the hard-won succession of ideas that ultimately changed the world. Humor, drama, and art unite to tell the story of events, discoveries, and ingenuity over time that led humans to come up with a big idea and then make it come true.

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School Library Journal

Starred Review

Gr 5 Up--Brown lays out the history of vaccinations in this relevant addition to the "Big Ideas That Changed the World" series. Narrator Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an early Western champion of inoculation, marches readers through the history of smallpox, a highly contagious disease that claimed millions of lives all over the world, leaving survivors disfigured and blind. Born in 1689, Lady Mary had her own children inoculated, having learned of the practice from her time in the Ottoman Empire. When Princess Caroline of Wales discovered it, she commissioned an experiment on prisoners before having her own children safeguarded. This kicked off not only the normalization of inoculation in the Western world but also the critical research that led to safer methods of disease prevention, such as vaccinating people with the less deadly cowpox. Brown travels through time, covering the effective eradication of polio before arriving finally at the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout, he emphasizes there were always those who did not trust scientists and doctors. The U.S. Supreme Court even ruled in the 1880s that Cambridge, MA, had "the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members" by making smallpox vaccination mandatory. The blue and sepia tones add a nostalgic wash to the clean, clear layouts. Brown's decisive tone is at times firm, often playful, and never condescending. VERDICT Shedding light on a topic that's all too timely, this thorough chronicle of vaccination is essential for all libraries.--Abby Bussen, Muskego P.L., WI

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Thoroughly researched and fascinating, this effort concludes with outstanding backmatter for a rich, accurate examination of the critical role of vaccines. Essential." — "Kirkus Reviews"
Don Brown

Don Brown is a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction- and Sibert Honor award-winning creator of nonfiction teen graphic novels. Praised for his resonant storytelling and evocative, delicate watercolor paintings, Brown "has put the finishing touches on the standards for storyographies, says School Library Journal. He lives in New York.
www.booksbybrown.com
Instagram: @donsart

Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781419750014
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Amulet Books
Publication date
April 20, 2021
Series
Big Ideas That Changed the World
BISAC categories
JNF051190 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | History of Science
JNF061010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology | Inventions
JNF024020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Health & Daily Living | Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries
JNF051170 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Discoveries
JNF062020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | History
JNF062030 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Science & Nature
Library of Congress categories
History
Graphic novels
Nonfiction comics
Vaccination
Vaccines
Little Maverick Reading List
Selection 2022

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