Who says Women Can’t be DOCTORS?

Who says Women Can’t be DOCTORS?

Author: Tanya Lee Stone

Illustration: Marjorie Priceman

Genre: Nonfiction: Biography and Informational Book

Grade Level: K – 5^th grade

This is a biographical book about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor. The story starts when Elizabeth was a young girl. She has a very determined personality from a young age and nothing stopped her if she put her mind into it. One day she gets the idea from Mary Donaldson that she should try to be the first female doctor. Elizabeth takes her advice and starts applying to every medical university she can. She gets rejected from 27 medical universities that she applied to except one, Geneva medical school in upstate New York. Townspeople are astonished to see a woman in medical school and think that it is just wrong. Men in the school, who jokingly voted for her to come to the school, thinks it is a big joke for a woman to be a doctor. But Elizabeth proves them wrong. She graduates the school with the highest grade and opens the door for the other women to pursue their dream of the medical world.

  

The illustration in this book is great. It is colorful, it is vibrant and fun. All the ingredients to get the children attention. Also, another factor in this book the way the words are printed. Some of the illustration has large, bold and curled text surrounded around the page. It is like the text itself arises as an illustration. Clever!

Thoughts:

It is amazing to think where we are now. To think that women were only restricted to do and be certain things just boggles my mind. I am so glad we have moved past all that and happy to be where we are right now. Of course, we could not have achieved all this if it wasn’t for countless women like Elizabeth Blackwell. So, I am so thankful for these brave women to put themselves out there and fight against all the odds. This book is packed full of vocabularies that will be good to teach students. I can also read this book to students to encourage them to follow their dreams and never to give up on it.