Four American army doctors, who traveled to Cuba to ght an outbreak of Yellow Fever and determine the cause, risked their lives to conduct medical experiments that would eventually make medical history

This engaging book takes the reader on a journey leading to the discovery of Yellow Fever's mode of transmission, creating a suspenseful tone as it details steps of the scientific method and relates the personal stories of those brave men on the front lines. The author stays on point, not straying from the subject of Yellow Fever. Highly organized and chronological, it is appropriate for broad age groups and for either a history or science classroom.

The primarily yellow, black, and white color scheme is attractive and supports the plethora of photographs, diagrams, and illustrations, many of which are primary sources. The presence of small mosquitos dotting many of the pages is a whimsical touch despite their dark overtones.

Finally, the appendix contains biographical information about the scientists and human "guinea pigs," serving as a respectable memorial before the glossary, chapter notes, bibliography, recommended reading, and index conclude the book and confirm its role as a great teaching tool. ( )

RGG: Clear, concise, page-turner describing the history and science of discovering the source of Yellow Fever. Good match with Anderson's Fever 1793 and Jim Murphy's An American Plague. Reading Level: 10-14.

A look into how a team of scientists discovered the cause of Yellow Fever. The book is arranged chronologically and contains a number of great and interesting pictures to go along with the information. Contains a great bibliography as well. ( )

Very good. There are a number of things that conspired to offer the opportunity for plenty of suspense and emotional ups and downs for a non-fiction study and the author took pretty good advantage of them. There's a violent and deadly disease; A near total lack of clues as to what causes it and the concomitant lack of comfort that the researchers themselves were not going to acquire the disease and die; (They actually took even greater risks than this indicates.) 100 year old research methodologies - roughly equivalent to advanced high school projects; technology that doesn't even match underfunded high schools; Quite a trip.

For anyone whose curious and interested in an good overview of the subject, I found it really enlightening to come to this by way of Laurie Halse Andersons fictional account of a girl who lived through the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793 and Jim Murphy's non-fiction account of that same outbreak.

I've become a big fan of YA and middle grade non-fiction. I've come across a variety of specific subjects in history and science. They're written with an eye toward holding interest without giving up the objectivity required by the subject material. (That could be debatable on a couple of the books but I've been satisfied.) If you're not doing more extensive research they give a pleasingly thorough overview of a subject. ( )