Recent health scares such as H1N1 influenza have exposed children to frightening information that can be difficult to process. This thoughtful bilingual book helps them understand the abstract concept of largescale sickness and appreciate the role children play in the health of their community. It introduces young readers to a fascinating aspect of southwest history, and invites discussion of folk medicine and science, while also addressing children’s curiosities and fears.
Recounting the two most deadly epidemics to strike the Southwest—smallpox in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and influenza during World War I—this beautifully illustrated narrative reveals that with tragedy comes heroism, as demonstrated by the children who bravely transported the smallpox vaccine from Mexico’s interior to New Mexico in 1805. Through the eyes of the protagonist José Amado “Amadito” Domínguez—a real child of the flu epidemic era who would later become Taos County’s first nuevomexicano physician—folklorist Lamadrid weaves together culture, history, mortality, and hope into a life-affirming lesson.