Chemo Girl, Saving the World One Treatment at a Time

This is a book written by a cancer patient, Christina Richmond, about a super hero named Chemo Girl who fights cancer cells in children’s bodies. She and her dog Broviac take on cancer by entering the body and fighting the cancer cells head on. This is an inspiring and incredible story that any pediatric cancer patient will love. The idea of chemo as a super hero is a great image for a pediatric patient to help them keep up hope and feel better about how difficult chemotherapy can be. The fact that it was written by a child will make it easy for other children to relate to. This is a great book to give a pediatric patient that may be facing chemotherapy as a part of their cancer treatments. It is a cute story that they can use to calm and relax themselves and they can think of Chemo Girl helping them fight their cancer cells.

My Trip to the Hospital

My Trip to the Hospital by Mercer Mayer
This is Little Critters story about what happened when he broke his leg at a soccer game. He goes through each step of going to the hospital, seeing the nurses and doctors, having an x-ray, and getting his cast on. He learns how walk with crutches, and then all his friends get to sign his cast when he goes to school. This is a great story to help children understand the sequence of events that often happen when making a trip to the hospital because it includes factual information but also has humor and is done with animals. I especially like the pictures because they correctly depict the environment that hospitals often have. You could use this book for lessons on what it is like to go to the hospital—it can be used for any child but is helpful for children who are expecting to enter the hospital. Because it focuses on a broken leg, this is a great story for a child with a broken bone, or a sibling of a child with a broken bone.

Judy Moody MD, The Doctor is in! by Megan McDonald

Judy Moody aspires to be like the first female doctor Elizabeth Blackwell, when she grows up so when her teacher announces that her class will be studying the human body she is ecstatic! They get to choose their own topic for a class human body project, and they go on a field trip to the emergency room of a hospital. Towards the end of the story, Judy actually gets sick with tonsillitis and has to stay home from school for a while until she gets better. This is a great series and I love Judy Moody and her hilarious personality. I love how the author works in human body vocabulary because it is an easy way to teach these words in such a funny story. I also liked how the characters used pet therapy to help Judy get better when she was sick. Pet therapy is not very well known to many children, but it is often used in children's hospitals. Getting a visit from a pet can be distracting and exciting and make their gloomy day much happier. This would be a great book for a child between ages 6 to 10 that may be sick or have to go into the hospital with something like a broken arm or tonsillitis.

Peace Jam

I strongly recommend the 2008 book Peace Jam by Ivan Suvanjieff and Dawn Gifford Engle. This book is written for ages 12 years and up and discusses Peace Jam's global call to action: The Youth Movement. Nobel Peace Laureates work with youth to make social change actually happen around the world. Each chapter describes the work that a specific Nobel Peace Laureate has done with children and adolescents. For example, in chapter 6, titled "Racism Is Against The Law," Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Fernando (an adolescent) discuss the problem of racism that still exists all over the world today. This book provides great information for young teens and adolescents about the social justice issues that exist today. The real life examples of students taking action shows teens that they can get involved and make a difference. This may be a great way to introduce a class community service project.

"How a Seed Grows"

"How a Seed Grows" by Helene J. Jordan

I strongly recommend this book as a great science lesson for ages 3 to 6 years. This book is from the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science Series and includes a lesson on how a seed grows into a plant in a way that is very accessible for young children. The book goes through the step by step process of what exactly happens to a bean seed once it is planted in the soil, is given water and plenty of sunlight. There are great illustrations of each stage so the students will know exactly what they are looking for as the plant grows each day. It also includes a complete description and instructions for doing this experiment as a class project. This whole series seems great for introductions into specific lessons and class projects!