Dr. Jo

August 1, 2018
Jo wanted to become a doctor, quite uncommon for a girl in late-19th-century America.Jo had her opportunity when doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell opened a medical school for women. When she graduated, she opened a practice in New York City with a woman colleague, Florence, but few patients came. Jo became a health inspector for the city and was assigned to Hell's Kitchen, a poor, crowded immigrant neighborhood where there was a high death rate among babies and young children. Dr. Jo found practical solutions to many problems, using her official capacity to implement them. She established a requirement that midwives be trained and licensed and assigned visiting nurses to new mothers. She organized milk stations, designed safe containers for silver nitrate eyedrops for newborns, and designed safe infant clothing that allowed movement and airflow. Kulling employs accessible language and follows a logical sequence of events to provide readers with an understanding of Baker's strength of character. Swaney's watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil illustrations carefully complement the events and settings of the text. Baker and Florence are white, and the people of Hell's Kitchen are depicted in a variety of skin tones, but otherwise all the faces are the same with little indication of emotion, just dots for eyes and little swoops for smiles.An interesting, informative introduction to an unknown woman trailblazer. (afterword, sources, websites) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2018

Gr 1-3-As a female doctor in the early 20th century, Sara Josephine Baker faced significant obstacles. Most medical schools at the time didn't accept women and it was tough to find patients as one. However, as a health inspector for New York City, "Dr. Jo" provided public health education and stemmed the spread of infection and disease, improving the mortality rates for women and children. Kulling has extensive experience writing children's biographies, and her talent shines here. The text does not shy away from hard truths about the realities many children, especially ones living in poverty, faced in regards to health care. ("This baby, like many others, would die of heatstroke.") Swaney's artwork is a charming supplement to the story. The images successfully display tough subjects, such as sickness and tenement housing, in a way that is accessible for young readers without being too grim. Thoughtful details, such as a child hoop rolling and women wearing leg of mutton dress sleeves capture the spirit of time and place. VERDICT Use to demonstrate the lasting power of positive social change. A fine addition to picture book biography collections.-Alyssa Annico, Youngstown State University, OH

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018
Grades 1-3 Growing up a tomboy in the late 1800s, the subject of this straightforward and well-paced picture-book biography dreamed of becoming a doctor. After time in private practice, Dr. Baker became a New York City health inspector, a job that took her into the impoverished immigrant neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, where she witnessed children living without fresh milk or air, becoming accidentally blinded, and dying. She dreamed of changing this and set up milk stations, licensed midwives, and implemented myriad other improvements in the health of children and women. The colored pencil, gouache, and watercolor art here is relatively simple, as are the short declarative sentences, which all together represent the time period well and depict Dr. Baker's story very accessibly. There are some uncited quotes, and it's unclear how the claim that she saved the lives of 90,000 inner-city children across America was quantified, yet the short back matter and source notes successfully support this story, which illuminates Dr. Baker's understanding of the connection between poverty and illness and her important impact.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)