The subtitle of this book is: The Woman Who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus. With a 2021 copyright date and a dedication to those working hard in the fight against Covid-19 this book is relevant. It is a perfect book to use in a STEM unit for science or a biography unit for reading. This is the story of a girl who loved school and learning new things but had to drop out when she was 16 to help her family. But June did not let a problem stop her. No way. She found a job in a hospital lab and the book goes on to tell the story of how a young woman without formal training was able to identify mysterious viruses and conduct pioneering research. She made a stunning discovery when she was just 34 years old. Read the book with your students to find out what the discovery was, when it was made, and what happened as a result. The books contains some interesting and important text features to explore with older students: a Poem written by a scientist, photos of June and even a photo of an image she created of coronavirus particles, explanations of her work with an electron microscope, and a timeline of important events in her life. Because of the technical nature of this book I think it is best for 4th grade and up. If the book is used with younger children the teacher will need to be prepared to do a lot of explaining so students can fully appreciate the work ethic and discoveries made by June.
About the Author: Suzanne Slade is like a lot of kids—she loves to ride a bike, rollerblade, and bake pies and cookies. But she is also a well-known science author. She especially enjoys writing about women in science who were groundbreakers in their field. And no wonder—she herself is a mechanical engineer who works on rockets. For Suzanne the most exciting and challenging part of writing a book is doing the research. When researching she reads books, studies primary source documents, visits museums and historic sites, and interviews experts who know more than her about the people and their work than she does. Suzanne discovered she loved writing when she was in 1st grade but didn’t become an author for children until she started reading piles of picture books to her own two kids (one was adopted). She decided she wanted to write books to add to the pile but it took her eight years before her new dream was a reality. Students can watch Suzanne’s video—How I Became an Author—by going to her website, suzanneslade.com. There are many other fun videos for them to watch and learn.
Pathways Themes: Heroes
Reviewed by Krystal Bishop, EdD
Professor of Education
Southern Adventist University
Author: James Emery White
