Disease-Hunting Scientist: Careers Hunting Deadly Diseases

Children's Literature

"Science is a verb." that is what science teachers tell their students, and this book describes just that. I found the book to be an exciting collection of seven scientists doing their jobs, and sometimes I was jealous. As scientist, Marta Guerra, describes, "for people who like to do fairly exciting things… you feel like you are actually helping people, [disease hunting in Uganda] is a wonderful experience." The book is scientifically accurate, and, with a bird flu expert hinting about new emerging pandemics, the book is very current. It is engaging and packed with a great deal of information. The Levels of Containment that we often read about describes measles as a level two disease, where gloves, face protection, gowns, and splash guards are used. It is a good thing that our mothers never knew that. For your information, E. coli is only level one. If you did not know what bat guano is, the explanation is seamlessly woven into the text. Zoonotic is a word I have been hearing more about, and this book teaches young readers what it means: diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans. Scientist Laurie Richardson says that "being a scientist is like being a kid all you life" because there is so much fun and learning to do. Scientist Jonathan Runstadler's job is to track the bird flu. To do that, he swabs bird bottoms, which may not sound like fun, but, for people such as me, it beats sitting in a cubical working on spreadsheets. This is a great read. Reviewer: RevaBeth Russell