Outbreaks: Science Seeks Safeguards for Global Health

Children's Literature - Anita Barnes Lowen

From the "National Geographic Investigates" series, this volume introduces young readers to bacteria and viruses, the diseases they cause and their threat to global health. After an easy-to-understand explanation of just what bacteria and viruses are, the following six chapters cover a variety of topics. Learn how scientists brought a long dead influenza virus back to life. Meet a microbiologist who works at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and find out what his job entails. Read about the modern plague of AIDS and what science is doing to find a cure. Sidebars that run the full length of the page give additional information on relevant topics such as the Black Death or quarantine (e.g., the first system of quarantine was developed in Venice in the 1400s). As one would expect of a National Geographical publication, the photographs are colorful and attention-grabbing. At the end of the book, readers will find a glossary, a bibliography, a list of suggested resources for further learning (books and websites), and an index. An excellent choice for an elementary or middle school science collection. Reviewer: Anita Barnes Lowen