A Shot In The Arm!, the antibody of the graphic novel blaaahs

Discovery is a great thing and I love it when I find an author that was previously unknown to me. Just to be clear, in this instance I mean an author that’s written and published books and not an author that I discovered down at my local coffee shop. Don Brown is in the third book in his Big Ideas That Changed The World series on Amulet Books. I had seen the first and second books from the series in our elementary school library, and meant to read them, but got distracted by shiny objects or cat videos. A Shot In The Arm! is a non-fiction graphic novel that’s as great as any of the ones that we’ve raved about from :01 First Second books or Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales.

In a way, it’s even more admirable for A Shot In The Arm! to be so enjoyable. As one might have surmised from the title, it’s about the history of needles, which is not exactly something that kids have an innate interest in reading about. Heck, even I hadn’t really sought out a book about how needles came to be. I’ve learned to be the subject of them when I need to be on those occasions when I go to the doctor’s office, but I never questioned the hows or whys over their development.

The fact that A Shot In The Arm! bypasses that and proceeds to blaze a storytelling graphic novel path that ages 10 and up will enjoy is a piece of work. Brown uses a central narrator, much like Hazardous Tales does in that series. The difference here is that Brown uses his narrator as a bridge between time periods or to supply more. The author also doesn’t play the narrator for laughs, they are there to entertain, but to do so in a matter-of-fact way. There are funny moments in the book, but they’re accomplished by the drawings are used very sparingly.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is the central figure in this book. I hadn’t heard of her either, but that’s OK because her story is fascinating and spelled out over the course of the graphic novel. She also has a couple of paragraph-style pages at the end of the book that details her life story in a more linear and narrative manner.   

Montagu lived in London around 1720 when Smallpox was on the cusp of ravaging the continent. The majority of the graphic novel takes place around the happenings of that horrible disease. Readers will also notice the parallels between that disease and COVID-19. There were people or institutions that encouraged the vaccinations, groups that vocally fought against them, and more.

A Shot In The Arm! travels through time and location, going back to China around 1000 when they would grind up dried scabs from various illnesses and blowing them up into the nose of healthy people. Yeah, that sounds disgusting and the book does a great job of illustrating that. But, it worked and those people didn’t develop the diseases that were blown into their noses. From there, various countries tweaked that school of thought, until eventually, they started jabbing or scrapping people with sharp instruments.

The art in the book works wonderfully with the subject matter. Initially, I was a bit put off because it wasn’t what I was used to in non-fiction graphic novels. Brown’s art is realistic and minimal, which isn’t what younger readers are used to when it comes to their books. It’s the minimal aspect, the fact that the panels have room to breathe with background or white space that makes it work. This allows readers of any age to read the content, comprehend it and retain the knowledge. Had the illustrations been brighter or larger then they would’ve watered down the book’s content, which is fascinating, fun, and makes kids curious about medicine and science.

Because the book spans lots of history it addresses other things, like Polio, Rabies, the origins of the fake vaccination to Autism link, and more. It’s not just a book that’s about COVID, Smallpox, or needles. A Shot In The Arm! is a non-fiction graphic novel that tells a complete story, but also invites readers who want to learn more about the subject matter. The content is great for those middle elementary-school readers and up, and the reading level is such that upper elementary-school readers can dig into the book without assistance.

Big Ideas That Changed The World, A Shot In The Arm! is by Don Brown and available on Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Kids.

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