Smallpox
Is It Over?
From the Series Nightmare Plagues
For thousands of years, smallpox had been one of the world’s biggest killers. From the terrible plague that nearly wiped out the entire Aztec and Inca populations in the 1500s to the outbreak in the colonies that killed many of George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War, smallpox has been responsible for some of the worst epidemics of all time. In the 1960s, the World Health Organization started a worldwide vaccination campaign in an attempt to wipe out this disease once and for all. By 1980 they declared victory, and there hasn’t been a known case of smallpox since. But are we really completely safe from this terrible killer?
In Smallpox: Is It Over?, children become medical detectives as they investigate the history of the disease, how it spreads, and the impressive details of how doctors and scientists developed a cure that has saved millions of lives. Packed with large photos and written in a narrative style, kids will come to understand the devastation that a contagious disease can inflict—and learn how humankind bravely responds.
| Interest Level | Grade 4 - Grade 9 |
|---|---|
| Reading Level | Grade 4 |
| Category | Nonfiction |
| Copyright | 2011 |
| Publisher | Bearport Publishing |
| Imprint | Bearport Books |
| Language | English |
| Publication Date | 2010-08-01 |
| Reading Counts! Level | 6.3 |
| Reading Counts! Quiz | Q51072 |
| Reading Counts! Points | 3.0 |
| BISACS | JNF024020 |
|---|---|
| Dewey | 614.5'21 |
| Graphics | Full-color illustrations, Full-color photographs, Historical photographs |
| Lexile | 980 |
| Guided Reading Level | Q |
| ATOS Reading Level | 6.2 |
| Accelerated Reader® Quiz | 139223 |
| Accelerated Reader® Points | 0.5 |
Reviews
Smallpox
The horrifying statistics, the scientific facts, and the public-health breakthroughs will all grab readers in this clearly presented overview of smallpox, “the world’s greatest killer.” The highly readable design packs in a lot on each double-page spread, with spacious type, boxed facts, full-color photographs (including graphic images of people suffering with the disease), and maps, as well as microscopic images of the virus that illustrate how it spreads. Following the disease’s global history through Asia, Africa, and Europe, and then its spread to the Americas, the book also discusses smallpox symptoms and describes exactly what the virus does inside the body. Up to 500 million people worldwide were killed by smallpox in the 100 years before the World Health Organization (WHO) vaccination program started in 1967, and in 1980, WHO announced that smallpox had been defeated. The answer to the subtitle’s question is yes, but an emergency plan is in place if an outbreak should ever recur. A full bibliography concludes this title in the Nightmare Plagues series.
Smallpox
The horrifying statistics, the scientific facts, and the public-health breakthroughs will all grab readers in this clearly presented overview of smallpox, “the world’s greatest killer.” The highly readable design packs in a lot on each double-page spread, with spacious type, boxed facts, full-color photographs (including graphic images of people suffering with the disease), and maps, as well as microscopic images of the virus that illustrate how it spreads. Following the disease’s global history through Asia, Africa, and Europe, and then its spread to the Americas, the book also discusses smallpox symptoms and describes exactly what the virus does inside the body. Up to 500 million people worldwide were killed by smallpox in the 100 years before the World Health Organization (WHO) vaccination program started in 1967, and in 1980, WHO announced that smallpox had been defeated. The answer to the subtitle’s question is yes, but an emergency plan is in place if an outbreak should ever recur. A full bibliography concludes this title in the Nightmare Plagues series.
