A very-well developed novel depicting the intensity of war between nations as well as the war waging inside the immune system. This would be a great tool to introduce virology, especially with the Q&A at the end that does a beautiful job explaining the dense medical content into something that is more approachable.

A solid choice for kids starting to grow out of the Science Comics series. Or just teens with an interest in historical science. We are presented not only with the science of virology but the historical context of military medicine in World War I. The infection is framed as a battle, the body attempting to identify the enemy and find an effective way to fight it. A decent overview to supplement a lesson.

I received this eARC from publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was such an unexpected read – a conglomeration of history and biology in a graphic novel format. It details the working conditions of nurses (in this case Australian) during World War I, and examines how easily it was for them to fall prey to the surrounding germs. I absolutely loved the real-life and bacteria “war” connection – it was a fantastic explanation of how a germ spreads throughout the body, and how the human body fights back. Definitely my favorite part, not only because it was educational (and, hello, I AM a teacher after all!), but also because it was visual, thus providing a great feature for visual-learners. Another great attribute of this graphic novel is the emotion it evokes. It is incredibly easy to make a strong connection with Sister Annie, and I found myself on an emotional roller-coaster ride while she was sick. I can see middle, high, and maybe even some upper elementary school students loving this book for the images and history, as well as the focus on science. I hope the book will evoke simple human compassion, if not for overall humanity, then certainly for nurses. Wonderful book, and I highly recommend it.

If you've ever wanted to read a book about Australian nurses in world war one, while also reading a conceptual story of sentient dysentery and bacteriophages waging war inside one of those nurses, you are going to want to pick up this graphic novel. I can honestly see where this could be a great addition to a biology class book collection, as it explains intestinal microflora in a very succinct and understandable way. I do feel like the history portion took a backseat to the microscopic story, but that's okay. The art was my biggest issue. I couldn't tell any of the characters apart bc they all looked like the same woman and the same man over and over. The bacteria were more easily delineated than the humans. This was at least unique, though.