“Nurse Florence: Help I’m Bleeding” by Michael Dow

Nurse Florence, Help I’m Bleeding

Michael Dow
Dow Creative Enterprises, LLC (2020)
ISBN: 9781716553608
Reviewed by Lydia (age 6) for Reader Views Kids (12/20)

“Nurse Florence, Help I’m Bleeding” by Michael Dow is the story about a little girl named Jean and how she got hurt at the playground playing with her friends and had to go see nurse Florence inside the school. Jean was playing a game of tag with her friends Condi and Sonia. Jean was chasing her friends and fell down and cut her hand on a rock. Jean had to go inside to Nurse Florence because her hand was bleeding. Nurse Florence put pressure on the cut with some gauze, which is clean cotton. She then talked about Vitamin K that will help you stop bleeding. There are little things in your blood called platelets that connect together to stop your bleeding. Then she told Jean about good and bad bacteria that live in our bodies. She put some cream on Jean’s cut to keep the bad bacteria away. Then she gave Jean a band aid for her cut to keep it clean. Then she told Jean about foods to eat that will help keep her body healthy to stop the bleeding. When Jean was leaving, Nurse Florence told her about becoming a nurse and that she thought that Jean would be good in a job with science.

I like the book because I learned a lot about science and what happens when I get a cut. I like the pictures because they are pretty and that they cover the whole page. While my mom was reading the story to me, it was kind of hard to understand the words. When she explained them to me, then I knew what they meant. I didn’t know about Vitamin K, C, B-12, or the different kinds of gloves Nurse Florence wore. I also didn’t know about platelets, fibrin, and that you have to understand a lot of science to become a nurse. I think that kids my age will like the book, but older kids will probably understand it a little better. 

A Note from Mom:

This story has a lot of information that I found interesting. Lydia didn’t know about any of it before but seemed to comprehend it alright after I explained it to her. I think that it is a great idea to have a book series devoted to science jobs, and especially ones that will appeal to girls. I agree with Lydia that six-year-old’s will be able to get the overall story of a girl getting hurt and getting help from the school nurse, but the specifics will probably go over their heads for the time being.