Masked Hero

September 1, 2023
Preschool-Grade 3 Growing up in Malaya (a British colony) in the late 1800s, Wu Lien-teh excelled in his medical studies at Cambridge and in his later research on disease-causing viruses and bacteria. After he started a family, they moved to China. In 1910, the government asked him to stop a deadly disease that was spreading rapidly in the northeast China city of Harbin. Using a combination of cloth and gauze, he designed a mask similar to those used by European physicians, but more effective. Some doctors in Harbin resisted wearing the masks. "Some taunted him or called him a racist name. But the doctors who didn't wear masks got sick." Within four months, the plague ended, and Wu received international acclaim. This smoothly written picture book--written by Wu's great-granddaughter, an American doctor, and inspired by her daughter's first-grade writing assignment--introduces a heroic researcher whose practical approach to disease prevention saved many lives, notably during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Wee's pleasing digital art illustrates the story within effective period settings. This picture- book biography showcases a significant, lesser-known East Asian scientist/physician.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2023
An undersung public-health hero gets his due. The mother and daughter co-authors, both descendants of their subject, trace the course of Wu's career. He grew up with 10 siblings in a busy neighborhood populated by residents of Chinese and Indian descent in British-ruled Malaysia (then Malaya). Following medical training in Great Britain and a return to Malaysia (where he had trouble finding an official post due to racial discrimination), he accompanied a rescue mission to Harbin, a city in northeastern China whose Chinese and Russian residents had been struck by black plague. Thanks to quarantine measures and a multilayered face mask he developed (which met with resistance from racist fellow doctors), the outbreak was suppressed within a few months. He went on to become the first person of Chinese descent to earn a Nobel Prize nomination. That style of mask was widely used in both the flu epidemic of 1918 and, having evolved into the N95 mask, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It remains one of our least expensive, most effective measures against contagions: "When we wear a mask to stop a disease," the co-authors conclude, "we are all heroes." They deftly cast light on medical issues and the racism Wu faced, drawing parallels between past and present. In the generic, stylized illustrations, Wu stands out for his large black glasses and air of smiling confidence. Chockablock with timely themes and connections to recent world-shaking events. (timeline, author's note from Liu, photographs, websites, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 2, 2023
Woo Liu’s great-grandfather, physician Wu Lien-teh (1879–1960), stars in a biography that focuses on its protagonist’s implementation of face masks to combat disease. A scene-setting beginning locates the story in 19th-century British colony Malaya, where Lien-teh dreams of becoming a doctor and uses what’s on hand to build makeshift sports equipment at school. He wins a scholarship that takes him to the University of Cambridge; subsequently, the doctor lands in China after facing discrimination as a person of Chinese descent. When a “terrible disease” sweeps through Northeast China, Lien-teh is asked to help. The gauze masks that the physician innovates end the outbreak, and later prove useful during the 1918 flu and as a prototype for Covid-combatting masks that “became part of everyday life.” Plain-spoken narration focuses on the chronology of Lien-teh’s life and accomplishments. Wee’s mild paintings accompany flat, unadorned backdrops against which the “masked hero” is depicted at work. A timeline and author’s note conclude. Ages 4–8.