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.