Fred & Marjorie: A Doctor, a Dog, and the Discovery of Insulin

Fred & Marjorie: A Doctor, a Dog, and the Discovery of Insulin
by Deborah Kerbel (Author) and Angela Poon (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: In 1921, Frederick Banting was a young doctor with an idea: could the mysterious secretions of the pancreas be used to treat diabetes? We now call this substance insulin, and its life-saving discovery was an impactful milestone in medical science.

Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, worked together in a small lab to test the theory with street dogs. Banting formed a special bond with one of his test dogs and gave her a name: Marjorie. After Marjorie responded well to insulin treatments, the treatments went on to be used for humans with diabetes–and the results were deemed practically miraculous.

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Nonfiction Monday

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Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Averee

Averee
by Stephanie Phillips (Author), Dave Johnson (Author) and Marika Cresta (Artist)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: A world where social rank rules and your status sets your inevitable course in life – sound familiar? Just imagine if it was all controlled by an app! In Averee’s world, the usual trials of making your way into adulthood come with the added stress of Ranked, a ubiquitous and all-knowing tech innovation that awards you points for socially acceptable behavior and takes them away when you don’t conform. It seems fun enough at first, but it becomes much more than a game when Averee’s rank suddenly drops overnight. Now she’s getting hassled at school, blocked from her favorite restaurants, and her mom is out of a job.

Luckily for our hero, she has Zoe – a bottom-ranked BFF – whose open disdain for all things Ranked makes her the perfect accomplice on what’s about to be the heist of the century: they’re staging a raid on the app’s corporate HQ to set things right and its spokesperson, the virtual popstar Pretty Kitty, is in their sights. With Averee’s crush Luke in tow, these friends are in way over their heads and they’re about to learn that the “right” they’re fighting for may be on a global scale.

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Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.