“Nurse Florence, Tell Me About Shingles? by Michael Dow

Nurse Florence, Tell Me About Shingles?

Michael Dow
Dow Creative Enterprises, LLC (2023)
ISBN: 978-1365758232
Reviewed by Lydia (age 9) for Reader Views Kids (05/23)
5 stars Learning About Shingles and Things Related

In “Nurse Florence, Tell Me About Shingles?” by Michael Dow, characters Jean, Condi, and Sonia are leaving school for the day when Condi tells her friends that she needs to talk to Nurse Florence about something. She goes to her office and asks her about shingles because her granddad has it – what is it and how do people get it? She was told that shingles is a virus that people are more likely to get if they’ve had chicken pox at some time. The virus can give you blisters on your skin that are painful and sometimes itchy; these blisters can show up on different parts of your body, such as your neck, eyes, face, back, or abdomen. Condi learned more about what causes shingles, how it can affect your body, and ways of treating it.

I enjoyed reading “Nurse Florence, Tell Me About Shingles?” because I learned something new. I learned that I have not gotten chicken pox because I was born after the vaccine for it came out, so since I got it when I was a baby, I have not had to deal with chicken pox before, and hopefully won’t end up having shingles when I get older. I learned about this new virus though, so I can better understand what other people are talking about if they are talking about shingles, or if someone I know gets it. I found out that I have a family member who has had it before, so after reading and learning about it, I better understand things about them related to what they are dealing with because of shingles in their past. Like other “Nurse Florence” books I’ve read, there are words in the book that I didn’t know and had to have explained to me, but after that, it made more sense. I am glad that I read through “Nurse Florence: Tell Me About Shingles?” because even though it might be a while until I could get this virus, I know more about it and can explain it to other people better to maybe help them.

Note from Mom: The author’s purpose of the book comes through clearly and the information related to their purpose (informing about shingles), is educational and straightforward to prevent any biases or misconceptions. “Nurse Florence” books are excellent tools for parents, caregivers, or educators to use to educate the younger generation about real-world problems so that they might not be shied from. Out of the books we’ve read, “Tell Me About Shingles” is one of the more difficult books for Lydia to emotionally understand, just for the fact that she doesn’t know or hasn’t heard about as many people with shingles as people with other ailments. As for mental understanding, the presentation is at the same level as the other books in the series.