Ouch!
Joe Rhatigan, author
Joe Rhatigan has authored more than fifteen books for children and adults, including Don't Unravel When You Travel and Out-of-This-World Astronomy. He has also produced several best-selling books and series, including 101 Places You Gotta See Before You're 12!, The Boo Boo Book, and the My Very Favorite Art Book series.
Read more about Joe.
Anthony Owsley, illustrator
Read more about Anthony.
- Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year
Kirkus Reviews
A compendium of low-key medical information for the upper grade school set.
Got a headache? A rash? A pulled muscle or a sprained ankle? Disease by disease and injury by injury, this basic medical text takes young readers through various ailments, breaking each one down into a simple explanation of the problem. There's "First Response"--what the child can do to help alleviate the situation; "What Your Doctor Does"—which sometimes includes the advice that a doctor may not be necessary in many cases; "What Your Body Does"—the physiological response to the problem; and "What You Can Do to Prevent…"—common-sense health and safety advice. Often-humorous cartoon illustrations are featured on nearly every spread, along with high-quality color photographs of various ailments (sprained ankle, conjunctivitis, etc.). Each section includes an "Ouch! Pain Scale," a facial icon that indicates the degree of pain caused, although some offer such a range as to seem superfluous. While the explanations are basic and utilize kid-friendly words like germs, puke and poop, this effort also offers solid information, including terms like granulocytes and phagocytosis. These trickier words are defined clearly in the text and included in an extensive glossary. Unfortunately, no references are included. Photo captions are presented in a small, pale orange, italicized text that's challenging to read.
A generally attractive and entertaining medical reference that will appeal to inquiring minds.
NSTA Recommends
This book is packed with 80 pages of information about possible painful conditions that can affect humans, both inside and out. It is worded so that school-aged children can read and understand many of the possible ailments that could plague them and keep them out of school.
After a brief introduction explaining the purpose of the book and a disclaimer stating that the book is not meant to take the place of a doctor's diagnosis, basic body structure is described and explained with many drawn illustrations and an explanation of the mechanism causing pain. An Ouch! Painscale is included in this section. The section also contains information on the immune system called "The Warriors" and on various body invaders called "The Bad Guys" that cause problems. The rest of the book focuses on injuries, infections, and other things that can go wrong, including everything from splinters, blisters, and bruises, to burns, cuts, rashes, and poison ivy. Broken bones, sprains, and pulled muscles are described, as are allergies, headaches, and fevers. After a description of each particular ailment and possible causes, there is a section called First Response, then a paragraph entitled "What Your Doctor Does", followed by "What Your Body Does, and then "What you can Do" either to prevent or to treat this kind of ailment. This is followed by an icon from the PainScale that would indicate how much this particular ailment hurts.
Each section is filled with brightly colored illustrations and photographs. The book ends with an extensive glossary and an index. This book would be of great interest to children, and could be a supplementary book either in a classroom, a public library, or in the school library. It could possibly allay some fears and help children to understand many of the possible common ailments. A better understanding of the parlance used to describe various disorders could help parents and physicians to understand the complaints of an ailing child, and help the child to communicate symptoms to appropriate adults.
School Library Journal
Rhatigan describes the different ways in which humans become sick or injured, along with how the human body reacts and what can be done to help the healing process. An appropriate disclaimer cautions readers that the book is not intended to be used for self-diagnosis and encourages children to seek an adult when something is wrong. The medical information and terms are clearly explained. Colorful chapter and topic headings nicely organize the information into logical sections. Rhatigan covers parts of the body, bacteria and viruses, poisonous plants, bruises, bleeding, and more. In addition to including the symptoms, the author details how a doctor would treat the problem. Ways to prevent the illness/injury from getting worse are noted, along with a somewhat subjective scale rating the levels of pain readers might feel when experiencing each medical issue. A hefty combination of photographs, diagrams, and drawings augments the informative text, but not all the images are captioned. Owsley uses lots of color in his expressive, playful, and at times cartoon artwork. Unfortunately, the appended glossary does not give pronunciations for terms. The helpful index and table of contents, however, are a plus. Rhatigan and Owsley transform what could be a dry subject into a lively, educational read for children who are curious about common ailments and injuries.
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-62354-053-1
E-book PDF
ISBN: 978-1-60734-669-2
For information about purchasing E-books, click here.
Ages: 8-12
Page count: 80
10 x 9