I'M A VIRUS!

Let a chirpy rhinovirus fill you in on how viruses attack and how our immune system responds!

It all starts with a cold sufferer’s sneeze, which sends the cheery narrator and fellow virions (or virus particles) into the air, “fly[ing] in droplets of snot to…your nose!” Once viruses click into receptors and shoot their RNA into a nasal cell’s interior, it’s off to the races as chemical alerts trigger floods of mucus and bring legions of white blood cells charging in to eat the invaders. Just to make the drama a little less scary, Ciccotello kits out cells, viruses, antibodies, and Pac Man–like white blood cells with comically expressive faces in his cartoon illustrations—pulling back at intervals to show a brown-skinned child obliviously spreading germs to a racially diverse group of friends, lying in bed spooning soup to help the mucus flow, and finally returning to everyday life once the cold (or, by implication, other affliction) has run its course. Heos keeps the information flowing, too, as she goes on to describe the functions of different types of white blood cells and, zeroing in on smallpox as a particular success story, identifies several viral maladies, including Covid-19, for which effective vaccines have been developed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A steady flow of specific information and general reassurance.