Thank You, Dr. Salk!: The Scientist Who Beat Polio and Healed the World

by Dean Robbins (Author) Mike Dutton (Illustrator)

Thank You, Dr. Salk!: The Scientist Who Beat Polio and Healed the World
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Dr. Jonas Salk finds the cure for polio in this inspiring, educational, and timely nonfiction picture book.

Jonas Salk wasn't seen as a brave hero--not at first. As a child he was quiet and unassuming, but Jonas dreamed of tikkun olam, the Jewish phrase for "healing the world." He saw the polio virus strike his city, and he knew that with determination and hard work, he could be the one to stop its spread. So he grew up to study medicine, ultimately creating the polio vaccine that saved untold numbers of lives--and healed the world!

With Dean Robbins's inspiring text and Mike Dutton's dynamic illustrations, Thank You, Dr. Salk! is a true and timely story of trials, triumph, and what it takes to achieve your dreams. An author's note provides additional insight into Dr. Salk's life and influences, and the history of vaccines.

Select format:
Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

"An engaging blend of history, biography, science, and epidemiology that is sure to inspire and inform."

Review quotes

"A hardworking title, this is a great choice for allaying vaccination fears, communicating the importance of science and medicine, showing that heroes come in many forms, and explaining that education, creativity, resilience, and dedication can lead to achievements and concrete results. An engaging blend of history, biography, science, and epidemiology that is sure to inspire and inform." —Booklist

"Robbins' biography is particularly timely within the context of the coronavirus epidemic, and his direct, streamlined account connects well with early primary listeners, who may take some comfort in knowing that science has managed to get other epidemics under control." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Dean Robbins
Selina Alko has always been curious about different people and cultures, which stems, in part, from growing up with a Canadian mother and a Turkish father, who spoke seven languages and taught her to paint. Her art brims with optimism, experimentation, and a deep commitment to multiculturalism and human rights. She is the author of The Case for Loving, which she illustrated with her husband, Sean Qualls, and the co-illustrator, also with Sean, of Two Friends by Dean Robbins. She has written and illustrated several other acclaimed picture books, including Daddy Christmas & Hanukkah Mama and B Is for Brooklyn. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Learn more at selinaalko.com.
Sean Qualls finds inspiration everywhere, from old buildings, nature, fairy tales, black memorabilia, and outsider art to cave paintings, African imagery, mythology, music, and his native Brooklyn. He is the co-illustrator, with his wife, Selina Alko, of the celebrated picture books Two Friends by Dean Robbins and The Case for Loving by Selina Alko. Other acclaimed picture books he has illustrated include Giant Steps to Change the World by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Little Cloud and Lady Wind by Toni Morrison and her son Slade, Dizzy by Jonah Winter, and Before John Was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which he received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family. Visit him online at seanqualls.com.
Dean Robbins is a journalist and the author of the children's picture books Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing, and Miss Paul and the President: The Creative Campaign for Women's Right to Vote. His award-winning books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and have been praised in the New York Times and USA Today. Dean grew up idolizing Apollo astronauts and loved working with Alan Bean on The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon. Learn more at deanrobbins.net.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780374313913
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Publication date
June 22, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007090 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Science & Technology
JNF024020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Health & Daily Living | Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries
JNF051050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Biology
Library of Congress categories
History
United States
Salk, Jonas
Virologists
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis vaccine

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