You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Antibiotics

I believe this book does a great job of introducing ideas but allowing room for students to wonder about other ideas. Each page has an explanation, image, and historical facts. I think these three factors help students visualize what they are hearing in order to recall factual information easier in the future. In addition, by zoning in on background knowledge and historical facts helps build upon prior knowledge that students have.

Author: Anne Rooney
Illustrator: David Antram
Year Published: 2015
ISBN: 978-0-531-21218-9

Summary

This book is centered around the idea of what medicine does for our overall health. The author defines certain medical terms such as viruses, bacteria, etc. A central theme for this book is knowledge is power.

Evaluation

Appropriateness: High
Authority: Medium
Accuracy: Medium
Liteary Artistry: Medium
Appearance: High

Questions

Does the book foster development of processes?

Does the book provide an opportunity for children to ask and answer their own questions?

My opinion to this question is that students will be given a lot of information on each page so they might feel overwhelmed and that might hinder their curiosity. The overwhelming of text and visuals on each page makes me not want to question certain things because it seems like everything is correct by how much information they have provided on each page.

Does the book encourage children to think for themselves?

This book seems more like a factual evidence based text. Some students might feel as if they can question the validity of the text but I do not think the majority of students would do so. I believe if students are taught to question the text for themselves in a regular fashion then they will be more likely to do so individually. Most of the wording in this text is more statement based versus question based.

Is the science topic addressed in ways that are appropriate to the lesson?

The idea of viruses and bacteria are addressed in ways that allow students to both gain a sense of understanding of the content language and think about their own experiences with illness. There are some examples from historical times that are not the most appropriate for all ages. Some examples are too gruesome for younger grades. In a sense they are inappropriate because of the cruelty that is elicited by language/images.

Is the content based on sound scientific principles? Is it accurate?

The majority of the content is based on viruses, bacteria, and the microbiology that surrounds that scientific principle. The information to my knowledge is credible and accurate. I appreciate how the text is written in a way that is humorous to the readers. The language of this book is heavy and the content is dense. I am not sure how students would unpack all of the information.

Does the book distinguish between fact and fiction?

Yes, this book does a superb job at differentiating what is factual and what is not by placing it in different areas of each page. Some parts of each page are dedicated to historical remedies or stories that happened centuries ago, but the author explains why the remedy or story is not factual. The images also create a sense of which content is fact or fiction.

Are the illustrations clear and accurate?

The illustrations are clear and somewhat accurate. The illustrations look more like they are from a comic book. In my own opinion, if a picture were to come from a high quality camera it would be more credible and accurate than a drawing. However, that does not mean that all illustrations are not accurate, I as a reader just have a preference. Some drawings are not clear which makes the content that is discussed throughout the page hard to understand at times.

Is the book written at the level of your students?

I believe that most of my students would be able to read this book but some words would be difficult. The terminology that is within the book is dense for most readers to unpack all at once. I think it would be beneficial to have a word wall of some sort so that the terms can be defined and explained thoroughly in the context that it is in.

Is there a multicultural component? Is it free from stereotyping?

This book is not free from stereotyping. I noticed that all of these men seem to have large noses but I am not quite sure why it is like that. The book was written and published by people from English origins so that might be a reason as to why the illustrations look like so.

Is the book free from gender bias?

In the historical stories that this book talks about, the women are all serving the men. I find it interesting how the majority of this text is filled with illustrations of men and male images. There is a male on the cover but not a woman. I am curious as to why there are not more women in this children's literature book. I believe there should be a better representation of women in this book.

Does the book show the close association between science and other disciplines?

This book does an excellent job of integrating social studies with science. This integration is done by having historical stories embedded within the text. I believe this book is very historical and science based. There are writing text features that are brought about by the use of italics, bolded text, and dialogue.

Does the book present a positive attitude toward science and technology?

This is an interesting question that I think is vital in many ways because as teachers we have to be mindful of what we are modeling and presenting to our classes. This text in my own opinion, does not do a good job of presenting science with a positive attitude because the illustrations bring about a negative tone/attitude. The major critique that I would have for this book is that it does not give off a positive attitude towards science/technology.

Science Topics

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