Snot, Sneezes, and Super-Spreaders: Everything You Need to Know About Viruses and How to Stop Them.

by Marc ter Horst, Wendy Panders (Illustrator), Laura Watkinson (Translator), Jennifer Dr. Gardy (Foreword by)

Overview

Discover the extraordinary world of viruses, from their creation and transmission to what we can do to stop them, in this science-based resource for kids 8 to 12.

If we didn’t know it before, we certainly know it now: Viruses can be powerful—so powerful, in fact, that they can hold the world in their grip for months at a time. But what exactly is a virus? Where do they come from and what do they do to our bodies? How do they spread, and what can we do to protect ourselves?

Author Marc ter Horst tackles these questions with playfulness and humor, while Wendy Panders’ quirky and enlightening illustrations bring the text to life. Snot, Sneezes, and Super-Spreaders is an accessible and engaging guide to help young readers understand our current world, with information on:

• Pandemics, addressed in an age-appropriate way that goes beyond doom and gloom.
• The value and importance of vaccines for addressing viral diseases.
• Fascinating, icky diseases of the past—and those that still hang around today.
• The science behind how to protect ourselves and our communities from current and future viruses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771649735
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	138
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.75(h) x (d)
Lexile:	920L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Marc ter Horst studied literature but soon found himself more interested in geology, astronomy, and evolution. He has written several nonfiction books for kids, which have been translated into many languages, including Palm Trees at the North Pole. He lives in the Netherlands.

Wendy Panders is an illustrator and graphic designer for magazines and newspapers and has illustrated many children’s books. She lives in the Netherlands.

Dr. Jennifer Gardy is a scientist who has worked at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and is now part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Malaria team. She appears frequently on television programs such as CBC’s The Nature of Things and the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet. She lives in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Foreword 1

1 Nasty to Meet You

What Viruses Are and How They Work

Virus Story: One Year of COVID-19 4

Don't Be Scared 8

It's a Small World 10

Zooming In 12

Spot the Different 14

Dead or Alive 16

Copying Errors 18

From Animal to Human 20

2 Snot and Super-Spreaders

How Viruses Spread

Virus Story: Room 911 25

Virus Paradise 28

The Multiplier 30

Invisible Clouds 32

Mad Animals 34

Typhoid Mary 36

Intruders 38

3 War Inside Your Body

How Viruses Make You Sick, and How You and Your Body React

Virus Story: Anti-Death Pills 43

Respect for the Runny Nose 46

Virus Fighters: Part 1 48

Virus Fighters: Part 2 50

In the Hospital 52

Mummy as Medicine 54

Farewell Through a Window 56

4 Virus Stoppers

How to Frustrate a Virus

Virus Story: A Prison Sentence for a Sneeze 61

Any Questions for the Virus? 64

The Problem With Lilies 66

On the Obstacle Course 68

Science Versus Diarrhea 70

Test, Test, Test 72

Quarantine, Then and Now 74

5 A Fascination with Vaccination!

How Vaccines Protect Us

Virus Story: Taming the Virus 79

The First Vaccine 82

Getting Sick to Stay Healthy 84

A Shot for Everyone 86

Dangerous Nonsense 88

True or False? 90

Guinea Pigs 92

Running With the Red Queen 94

6 In Search of the Source

How Virus Outbreaks Happen and What We Can Do About Them

Virus Story: The Bat Tree 99

Patient Zero 102

On the Edge of the Forest 104

All Together Now 106

Caught: Virus Spreads Fake News!!! 108

And Now for the Good News 110

WHOOwhooWHOO!!! 112

Thank You 114

Index 115

Editorial Reviews

"Comprehensive….relevant and engaging."
—Booklist

Praise for Palm Trees at the North Pole written by Marc ter Horst, illustrated by Wendy Panders

"Bring[s] the urgency of climate change front and center for upper-elementary and middle school readers."—Horn Book 

"An entertaining... overview of climate change.... this visually appealing account is inviting and ultimately reassuring."—Booklist

"I would recommend this book to any child who is concerned about the environment and also wants to do something about it….Great for a classroom."—Youth Services Book Review

Praise for Hey There, Earth Dweller! by Marc ter Horst, illustrated by Wendy Panders

“Earth science engagingly presented for middle-grade readers.”—Kirkus 

From the Publisher

2022-08-17
An in-depth look at viruses.

In this work translated from Dutch, the author rightly points out that viruses are ubiquitous but mostly harmless or even, in the case of bacteriophages, potentially beneficent, but here he focuses on those that are “tiny little troublemakers.” Casting them alternately as cartoon villains (“chuckling away” to themselves as conspiracy theorists reject public health measures) and as terrors that wiped out millions, he explains how viruses in general spread, mutate, and can unpredictably jump from animals to people. Along with retracing in exact detail the likely origins of the 1918 flu pandemic, SARS, AIDS, Ebola, and Covid-19, he describes the ways our immune systems respond to infections and significant medical triumphs. The author does sometimes wander off topic in the interests of telling a colorful story, so the Black Death and Typhoid Mary trot by even though, as he admits, both involved bacteria, not viruses. But a poignant interview with three children who lost their grandfather to Covid-19 adds a tragic personal note to all the tales of generalized catastrophe, and following stout arguments for the value of vaccination, the author closes with hopeful notes about new ways to counter future viral outbreaks and pandemics. Panders’ cartoon drawings of microbes with expressive faces, slimy floods of mucus, and a diverse array of victims (some green-faced) further lighten both message and informational load.

Chronicles episodes in an epic, age-old struggle but lightly enough to keep the megrims at bay. (index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)

Kirkus Reviews