DR. Fauci: The World’s Doctor
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been a chief medical advisor to seven U. S. Presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan. He is one of the best known scientists in the world. He has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984. As a prominent figure in the National Institute of Health (NIH), Dr. Fauci has been the foremost researcher of the global diseases of AIDS, West Nile, SARS, Ebola, and now COVID-19. He has worked in cooperation with immunologists in other nations. He is not just America’s doctor, but the best known physician in the world today.
Kate Messner’s definitive juvenile picture book biography of Dr. Anthony Fauci is based on much research and a personal interview with her subject. The narrative portion of the book shares Dr. Fauci’s life from childhood to his current omnipresence on the global media stage. The biography is easily and quickly read and is well worth multiple explorations. Alexandra Bye’s colorful digital illustrations boldly capture the personal side of this science super star. The narrative and illustrations easily capture the challenges and joys along with the buoyant nature of one gifted man’s multiple pathways to great service, success, and high honors. The narrative also accentuates the virtues of immigration, hard work, and dedication to a cause greater than one’s self. All four of Dr. Fauci’s grandparents were immigrants from Italy.
Dr. Fauci was born on Christmas Eve, 1940. His father owned a pharmacy in Brooklyn and young Anthony Fauci rode his blue Schwinn bicycle to deliver prescriptions to his father’s customers. He attended Catholic schools in grades K-12 and Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated first in his medical school class at Cornell University. At Regis High School in Manhattan, young Anthony Fauci was the shortest boy on the school’s basketball team, but because of his speed and great communication skills, he was chosen as team captain by his peers.
Following his medical school years, Dr. Fauci became engaged in work for the National Institute of Health. He has had a life-long interest in viruses that make people sick and how to conquer the new diseases such viruses cause. Throughout the narrative, Messner underscores Anthony’s Fauci’s special gift for listening to people to learn new information that has allowed him and fellow researchers discover new viruses that attack the immune systems of patients and may cause deadly diseases. He is particularly interested in how such diseases spread from individuals to mainstream populations. He has been curious about the laboratory science part of his work, but he has an equal interest in how to educate the general public with simple advice as to how to best prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
The most recent deadly disease that has propelled Dr. Fauci to international fame is COVID-19 caused by a coronavirus. The deadly virus was originally not easily understood or conquered. The presence of a tiny virus too small to even be seen closed down the whole world. To confront this deadly pandemic, Dr. Fauci used the problem-solving advice his father had shared with him even during his childhood when homework assignments were difficult:
Don’t get discouraged. Think about it carefully. Try to work it out.
Aided by scientists in America and around the world, Dr. Fauci prompted the development of vaccines that would hopefully allow people return to enjoying their normal lives safely. The narrative ends in the present day with America’s doctor dining together with his own family.
As interesting, informative, and as easily read as this narrative of Dr. Fauci is, the greatest good may well be derived from explorations of the back matter of the biography. Two pages of text answer the questions How Do Vaccines Work? and Are Vaccines Safe? These pages offer excellent starting points for student research about immunology. In a further double-page spread, Dr. Fauci himself offers five tips for future scientists. He urges children to always keep an open mind, never be afraid of failures, and to always keep learning.
A colorful spread across two pages presents a time line of Dr. Fauci’s life from birth to the present day. Recommended Reading leads youths of all ages to learn more about exploratory science and medicine. Another scholarly page is devoted to all the primary and secondary sources used by the biographer Kate Messner. A brief Author’s Note and a list of Acknowledgments are accentuated with family photographs of Anthony Fauci’s childhood and college years. A final page repeats his father’s problem-solving advice and is highlighted with a period photograph of the Fauci Pharmacy.
Home Activities
Students can become even more familiar with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s life and work by watching videos on YouTube plus other online interviews.
Ask students to explore the childhood background and adult pursuits of Dr. Anthony Fauci. Using key icons and symbols, children can then create a personal crest or family coat of arms for the good doctor. Better still, children may create multiple copies and send one each to Dr. Fauci and biographer Kate Messner.
A brief biographical profile of Kate Messner lists her website. After children have read Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor, encourage them to write an imagined email or text message to the author. Next, they can write a reply they believe the biographer might send. Finally, children can visit the author’s home page and forward an original message to her.
Ask children to use the source material in the biography to determine an appropriate birthday present (or create a super birthday card) for Anthony Fauci at any given point referenced in the biography’s colorful time line.
Artists utilize all the colors of the rainbow and myriad kinds of media and tools to create beautiful and often symbolic book illustrations. Alexandra Bye employs cheerful hues of yellow to accentuate the golden youth of Anthony Fauci. Later in this biography, the artist uses darker shades of blue and green to underscore the intensely serious work of Dr. Fauci as he battles deadly viruses. Inspire children to choose one passage of the great doctor’s life and create their own single- or double-page drawing of the chosen event. Encourage the use of color to accentuate or complement their drawing.
