REVIEW: IT’S CHEMISTRY WEEK!

In honor of Chemistry Week, I recommend reading this fabulous picture book about Tu Youyou, a pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist and first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize: 

​TITLE: TU YOUYOU’S DISCOVERY: FINDING A CURE FOR MALARIA

AUTHOR: Songju Ma Daemicke

ILLUSTRATOR: Lin

PUBLISHER: Albert Whitman & Company/2021

OPENING LINES: 
 
In 1969, people all across the world were sick. Malaria, a life-threatening disease carried by mosquitos, was spreading quickly and seemed resistant to all known treatments.
 
Reading the news in her Beijing apartment, Tu Youyou was distressed. Many people were suffering, and she had wanted to help save lives since shew was a child.

Talk about persistence paying off! That’s Tu Youyou in a nutshell. Songju Ma Daemicke’s book tells the story of how Tu Youyou experimented and experimented and experimented until she finally found success! She persevered through gender barriers (most girls in 1930s China did not go to school), biases against traditional Chinese traditional medicine (the Cultural Revolution that began in the late 1960s did not support traditional Chinese or Western cultures), and hundreds of failed experiments, to finally discover a treatment for malaria. This book shares the true story of an important woman in history in a child-friendly way while conveying themes of perseverance, persistence, belief, and altruism. Lin’s bright and expressive illustrations compliment the text beautifully. Great read!
 
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