Everything You Need to Know About Chicken Pox and Shingles (Need to Know Library)

It is estimated that four million people each year become infected with the chicken pox virus. While most people think of chicken pox as a childhood disease that you get once, the virus can resurface many years later in the form of shingles, a very painful disease. This book discusses these facts, as well as outlining how chicken pox spreads, what the symptoms are, and what treatments are available.

Grade 4-8-What with widely available vaccinations, most modern kids will never encounter measles, rubella, or chicken pox, and shingles must seem like a distant, weird thing that only affects somebody's Grandma, and they'll likely find all they want to know about these illnesses in a family medical guide. However, for those who want to know more, these books are laid out in the comfortable, predictable pattern of the series, including brief background, disease description, prevention, treatment, public-health issues, and recommended resources. The writing style is simple and fluid, the fonts are large and easy to read against lots of glossy white space, and the photos add illumination and, occasionally, an attracting level of cheerful middle school grossness to the text. Alvin Silverstein's Measles and Rubella (1997) and Chicken Pox and Shingles (1998, both Enslow) offer more in-depth treatments. In a society where children are fascinated (from a safe distance) with the medical plagues of the past, these new titles will be interesting and instructive.
Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.