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Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas

“Needles didn’t scare Vivien Thomas. In fact, he designed the ones lying on the operating table in front of him.” Working with Dr. Alfred Blalock of Vanderbilt and then Johns Hopkins University, African American Vivien Thomas was a skilled technician, inventor and teacher who developed medical techniques and the equipment needed to implement them. For decades, he also taught doctors and medical students. And for decades his work went publicly unrecognized. In 1944, when Blalock pioneered surgery to save “blue babies,” he did so using Vivien’s process and equipment, with Vivien talking him through the surgery. But Vivien wasn’t mentioned in the accolades that followed. While racism was a fact of Vivien’s life and career, his self-respect, intelligence, and dignity are the focus of a work that concludes with the much-deserved recognition he received at Johns Hopkins, where his portrait now hangs with those of other distinguished faculty. More about Vivien, tetralogy of Fallot (“blue baby syndrome”), a glossary, and sources are included in this deftly written and illustrated picture-book biography. ©2016 Cooperative Children's Book Center

Illustrated by Colin Bootman

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 7-10
Age Range: PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7) Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format: Picture book
Subjects: African Americans Biography History (Nonfiction) Illness and Disease Inventing and Inventors Medicine Racism Science and Scientists
Diversity subject: Black/African

Publisher: Lee & Low
Publish Year: 2016
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781620141564

CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 920 Thomas