A Vaccine Is Like a Memory

by Rajani Larocca (Author) Kathleen Marcotte (Illustrator)

A Vaccine Is Like a Memory
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

This timely book details the importance of vaccines and how they were developed throughout history, as well as how they work to protect your body and keep it healthy.

Do you remember every time you've been sick?

You may not, but your body does! With many illnesses, you can't get sick more than once because your body remembers and fights it off before you get sick again. But what if your body could recognize germs that you've never had before so you don't get ill? There's where vaccines come in!

This book comes complete with extensive back matter all about types of germs and vaccines.

Select format:
Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

Authoritative and reassuring.

ALA/Booklist

Starred Review
A lively, informative introduction to vaccines.

Publishers Weekly

Kicking off with a straightforward explanation of vaccines, visualized via a pale-skinned child with black hair, this picture book takes readers through the history and science behind the topic. Textbook-style prose details vaccines' origins as smallpox inoculation in China and India, discusses how an enslaved man from west Africa introduced the principle to a Boston physician in the 1700s, and reveals how vaccines leverage immune system mechanics. As LaRocca (Summer Is for Cousins) explains, a vaccine "kickstarts your immune system to make antibodies that can fight an infection without actually having to be sick from it. Then, if you're later exposed to that germ, your body 'remembers' how to fight it off." Colorful, mural-like art by Marcotte (Can You Believe It?) portrays inoculated and vaccinated figures of various abilities and skin tones as having dotted-line force fields, emphasizing how "an incredible scientific feat" facilitates daily communal life. A final section focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic, saluting scientists who raced to develop the vaccine and offer "a glimmer of hope" amid pervasive fear and isolation. Authoritative and approachable, these pages work hard to supply a measure of calm and common sense to readers. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Brent Taylor, Triada US. Illustrator's agent: Lindsay Auld, Writers House. (June)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Rajani Larocca
Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area with her wonderful family and impossibly cute dog. She earned a BA and an MD from Harvard and spends her time writing novels and picture books, practicing medicine, and baking too many sweet treats. She is the author of Midsummer's Mayhem, Much Ado About Baseball, The Secret Code Inside You, Seven Golden Rings, and Red, White, and Whole, which was a Newbery Honor winner. Find her online at RajaniLaRocca.com, and on Twitter and Instagram @rajanilarocca.

Chris Baron is the award-winning author of The Gray, All of Me, an NCTE Notable Book, and The Magical Imperfect, a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book, a SLJ Best Book of 2021. He is a professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center. He grew up in New York City, but he completed his MFA in poetry in 1998 at SDSU. He lives in San Diego, California, with his family. Find out more about him at chris-baron.com.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781499813265
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
A
Publisher
Little Bee Books
Publication date
June 20, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF051190 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | History of Science
JNF061010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology | Inventions
Library of Congress categories
History
Epidemics
Communicable diseases
Bacteria
Vaccines
COVID-19 (Disease)
Pandemics
Immunization

Subscribe to our delicious e-newsletter!