White House Secrets are Not a New Thing!

 

White House Secrets: Medical Lies and Cover-Ups (Medical Fiascoes) 

by Gail Jarrow 

288 pages; ages 10-17

Calkins Creek, 2025

Given all the political goings-on this year, this seems like a perfect time for a book about White House secrets to hit the shelves. And a perfect time to reflect on the medical fiascoes that have occurred during past presidencies. With that in mind, let’s head up to Capitol Hill – or at least open the cover of the book and dive in.

Did you know that eight US presidents died in office? And that more than a third of our presidents became seriously ill during their term in office? “Yet,” writes Gail Jarrow, “Americans were deliberately kept in the dark… Lies were told. Cover-ups were orchestrated.”

Gail writes from the position that Americans have a right to know whether their elected leader is healthy enough to perform the duties of his office. But sometimes family members hide health problems. Sometimes it’s presidential aides hiding their leader’s infirmities. And sometimes it’s the president himself – whether out of self-preservation or denial.

When James Garfield died of an infected gunshot wound, his vice president, Chester Arthur took over. Unfortunately, he had a kidney disease that resulted in fatigue, among other issues. Meanwhile, he staged photo opportunities to show himself as a hale and hardy outdoorsman, writes Gail.

Gail also examines the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, FDR, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan, and Joe Biden. The first page of each chapter includes fast facts: dates elected, biographical information, and their term in office. Within the chapter, Gail discusses the politics surrounding their presidencies, their health issues, legal and political ramifications, and what happens when a president is incapable of making decisions. 

I particularly liked the last chapter, in which Gail talks about the influence of a president on the American people, and reasons why they hid their health problems. “Grover Cleveland feared his cancer diagnosis would trigger a financial crisis,” she notes. Others have kept serious illnesses secret to “maintain power and prevent the vice president from taking over.”

The thing is, Gail points out, that there is no law that requires a candidate or sitting president to take a physical or cognitive test to prove that they are capable of performing the duties of the office. And asking for transparency about a president’s health raises a lot of questions. For example, is the president’s right to privacy more important than the public’s right to know medical details? Should certain medical conditions be disqualifying?

This book is a great resource for teachers and school libraries, offering jumping-off point for discussions and debates about history, politics, health, and ethics. I give it a rating of 5 stethoscopes. 

The Medical Fiascoes series includes Blood and Germs, which follows the advances in medicine during the Civil War and American Murderer about the parasite that haunted the south, which I reviewed here.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Vampire Worms! The perfect Halloween reading

Who needs a scary Halloween book about zombies when there are true stories that will make your skin crawl and give you the heebie-jeebies? 

American Murderer is one such book. Subtitled “The parasite that haunted the south,” it’s the most recent in Gail Jarrow’s Medical Fiascoes series. Just released last month from Calkins Creek, it's the perfect scary read for kids 10 and older. 

The first book in the series, Blood and Germs follows the advances in medicine during the Civil War. Twice as many men died from microbes and parasites as were killed by battles. While it begins as a medical fiasco, the war ended with advancements in surgical techniques and medical care that set the bar for decades. 

In the second book, Ambushed! The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield, Jarrow details the medical mistakes made in the aftermath of Garfield’s assassination. A series of faulty diagnoses and outdated treatments eventually led to the president’s demise.

American Murderer hits closer to home – the backyards and school yards of the American south. It focuses on microscopic worms living in the soil. Invisible vampires that enter your body through your bare feet, travel to your intestines, and stay there for years sucking your blood and draining you of energy. 

Yes, there are gory photos of the victims! 

Yes, there are gross diagrams and photos of the vampiric worms! 

But mostly it’s a story about the scientist who discovered the worm and played a role in educating the public on treatments and eradication: Charles Wardell Stile. As a boy, Charles was a curious naturalist. Like other boys in the second half of the 1800s, he collected specimens for his bedroom nature museum. I enjoyed reading about the time he decided to boil the flesh off a dead cat so he could add the skeleton to his museum – a time-honored way of cleaning the bones… as long as you remember to take the pot off the stove before it burns into a stinky mess (and I say this from experience).

Separating people’s bare feet from the microscopic worms sounds easy: have people wear shoes, and provide outhouses that don’t leak. But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, that was easier said than done. For one thing, shoes cost money. For another, people wondered who were those know-it-all Yankees coming down to tell them how to live? Fortunately, there was medical treatment – if doctors could reach the people who needed it most. 

These days, there is very little risk of getting hookworm disease in the United States, due in large part to the advances in sanitation and waste control. Unfortunately, according to new research, we are not rid of that blood-sucking vampire worm just yet…

You can find out more about Gail Jarrow and her books at her website, www.gailjarrow.com. Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

And remember to wear your shoes when you head out on Halloween night…. 

Forest World and Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet

I love it when I'm reading a novel and find that the author has a passion for animals, nature, math - and has incorporated STEM into their story. Here are two recent books where the science and environmental issues are integral to the plot. If you're still seeking a gift for your science-loving kid, these fit well into stockings (and budgets).

Forest World
by Margarita Engle
208 pages; ages 10 & up
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2017

Edver isn't happy about being shipped off to Cuba to see the father he barely knows. He definitely isn't expecting to meet a sister he didn't know existed! And he most certainly didn't plan to capture a wildlife poacher.

But what we, the readers don't expect, is to be completely immersed in a Cuban jungle. In the first twelve pages, Margarita Engle introduces us to bee-sized hummingbirds, condors, zombie cockroaches, and the seemingly opposing forces of survival and conservation on a small island. And she does all this in poetry.

What I like LOVE about this book: tucked into every page is a connection to the world beyond humans. There's a discussion of convergent evolution and, later, biodiversity and the advantages of variability in a world being changed by global warming. Layered over this are the real-world concerns of kids: if their mama loves them, why is she off doing research, and what can they do to bring her home? Back matter includes a list of "truly cool biodiversity words".

A couple years ago I reviewed Engle's picture book about Louis Fuertes who, like Audubon, painted birds from life.

 Who Gives a Hoot (Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet)
by Jacqueline Kelly
112 pages; ages 7-10
Henry Holt & Co, 2017

If you have a girl who wants to be a veterinarian- or who just loves wild animals - get this book into her hands. Eleven-year-old Calpurnia Tate - yes, the very same Calpurnia from The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate - explores the natural world around her Texas home. She learns about wildlife right in her backyard (or, in this case, a neighboring farmer's field) and helps the veterinarian mend their injuries. What's cool is that the book is set at the turn of the 20th century - the beginning of the 1900s - when veterinarians focused on livestock.

What I like about this book: Kelly's attention to details: mockingbird songs, what happens to a wet owl - those sorts of things. I also like the illustrations of Calpurnia's field notebook, and her "strong girl" attitude. She's not afraid to help an injured owl, even though it means catching mice for its meals. And she helps solve the mystery of what made the owl sick. A hint: it has to do with food chains.

 On Monday we'll be hanging out on Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers over at Shannon Messenger's blog, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copies provided by publisher.

Living Fossils

Living Fossils: Clues to the Past
by Caroline Arnold; illus. by Andrew Plant
32 pages; ages 8-11
Charlesbridge, 2016

When I was a kid, my favorite book was my dad's geology text. I spent hours and hours leafing through the pages, studying drawings of fossils and dinosaurs, losing myself in the geological time scale, sounding out "Carboniferous" and "Silurian".

Mostly, when we think of fossils, it's dinosaurs and trilobites. Something preserved in rock. Extinct.

But what if some of those ancient creatures still lived among us? Would we recognize them?

In this book, Caroline Arnold shows us six amazing creatures that resemble their long-gone, ancient relatives. She shows us where they live, how they survived extinction, and what their future holds. One of these "living fossils" is the horseshoe crab. One hundred fifty million years ago, horseshoe crabs had hard shells and long tails. They crawled up on sandy beaches to search for worms and shellfish to eat.

Not much has changed in the intervening millennia... if you visit the east coast on a warm summer night when the moon is full, you'll probably see hundreds of horseshoe crabs pull themselves onto the beach. They're digging nests and laying eggs, just as they did millions of years ago.

You don't need to drive to the beach to find a living fossil; just head outside to a wetland or meadow and look for dragonflies. These keen mosquito-devouring aerial hunters are the great-great-great-/.../ great-grandchildren of dragonflies that lived 280 million years ago. Over time things changed, like size. Back then, dragonflies were a lot bigger - about the size of a crow!

You can find out more about living fossils at Caroline Arnold's website, where she has some activities to do. Check out this article about scientists researching living fossils at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copies from publisher.