Product details
- ISBN 9781547618613
- Weight: 400g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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From New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about diseases that have shaped the course of human history.
* “Chock-full of awesomely appalling medical history.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review
* “Engaging, informative, but also gross.” —School Library Journal, starred review
School Library Journal Best Book of 2023
Cybils 2023 Nonfiction Middle Grade Finalist
2024 Best STEM Books Award from National Science Teaching Association
2024 Grateful American Book Prize Honorable Mention
Smallpox! Rabies! Black Death! Throughout history humankind has been plagued by . . . well, by plagues. The symptoms of these diseases were gruesome—but the remedies were even worse.
Get to know the ickiest illnesses that have infected humans and affected civilizations through the ages. Each chapter explores the story of a disease, including the scary symptoms, kooky cures, and brilliant breakthroughs that it spawned. Medical historian and bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris lays out the facts with her trademark wit, and Adrian Teal adds humor with cartoons and caricatures drawn in pitch black and blood red. Diseases covered in this book include bubonic plague, smallpox, rabies, tuberculosis, cholera, and scurvy.
Thanks to centuries of sickness and a host of history’s most determined plague-busters, this riveting book features everything you've ever wanted to know about the world's deadliest diseases.
Lindsey Fitzharris is the bestselling author of The Butchering Art and The Facemaker. Dr. Fitzharris, who holds a Ph.D. in the History of Science and Medicine from Oxford University, regularly writes for the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, the Guardian, the Lancet, and other major publications. She is also the writer and host of the Smithsonian Channel TV series The Curious Life and Death of….
drlindseyfitzharris.com
Adrian Teal is a caricaturist, cartoonist, fine artist, and illustrator with clients around the world. His work has appeared in numerous TV shows including Spitting Image and Big Heads. He has produced art for publications such as the Sunday Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian, Time Out, and the Daily Mail.
adrianteal.com
