When it comes to health education, Dr Saira Goheer and Dr Jack Miftha both know that the children’s literature market is severely underserved; especially books that share hard facts in a witty, fun and totally addictive way.
2020 was therefore the perfect year for them to debut their ‘Disgusting Doctors’ series, with the first volume chock-full of memes and cartoons about the most pressing topic in the world, the Coronavirus.
Deliberately created for older children and teenagers, the volume calls on the sharp end of medicine to dish up gruesome facts, hard truths and delectably juicy details about COVID-19, all from the expertise of two of the nation’s most creative medical professionals.
Synopsis of ‘The Only Book a Kid Needs to Read About Coronavirus Ever’:
A hilarious book for middle and high school kids about the coronavirus. Packed full of memes and cartoons. The crazy coronavirus has been causing chaos around the world! It’s changed everything and created so much confusion. Want to know more than your teachers, parents or even the President about coronavirus? Let's uncover all the important truths, without skimping on the revolting details that Disgusting Doctors love!
Learn how dabbing can save your life!
Read about the great toilet paper shortage of 2020.
Discover how a little robot in your cell phone can help crush the coronavirus.
Find out about other gruesome facts like why a horseshoe crab’s blood is vital for testing coronavirus vaccines. Let's begin the journey to separate fact from fiction. Know everything about the coronavirus based on real facts from real doctors!
“This entire series is designed to help children understand how our bodies and minds fit into the world,” explains Saira. “Of course, we teach everything through a side-splitting cocktail of gruesomeness, hilarity and delightfully disgusting facts and cartoons. We plan to expand the series to encompass a comprehensive range of health/wellness topics – both physical and mental – so children can learn about the science of their body in a way that’s easy to comprehend. After all, knowledge is the most powerful medicine we can practice.”
Continuing, “This first book is highly entertaining with an important underlying call to action, and we want it to be an ongoing source of accurate information rather than just a one-off read. Is it eccentric and unconventional? Yes! But that’s exactly what young readers demand.”
Reviews have been extremely positive. Mickey writes, “Loved the book, even as an adult I learnt stuff I actually didn't know about, while all the comic/ illustrations really help to make it entertaining to read about Coronavirus. Highly recommend it. Gifted it to a friend who has a kid and the kid's loving it too.”
Ammar adds, “Although this book is written with children in mind, I have to say it was laugh out loud hilarious for me too. The cartoons are so spot on with their humour. Exactly what is needed in these difficult times. My son is 9 and loved it, as did my daughter who is 12. The book is packed full of information about coronavirus and covid 19, which is presented in a thoughtful and fun way. My daughter who is a little older particularly enjoyed all the little sections "Extra Bits for the Brainiacs" and the "Did You Know" parts. Both my kids are already asking when the next book is out by Disgusting Doctors as they enjoyed the little preview at the end which is included.”
‘The Only Book a Kid Needs to Read About Coronavirus Ever’ is available now: https://amzn.to/34mhYp2.
For more information, visit the series’ official website: https://www.disgustingdoctors.
I had a chance to do an interview to learn more.
Why did you create this book?
Jack and I have both been practicing doctors since graduating in 2010. Over the last decade we have spent a considerable amount of time seeing, treating and speaking to our younger patients. We recognise the ability of children to comprehend the complexities and intricacies of their body. Children are not only interested in knowing how their bodys work but their ability to make sense of it is profound.
It is regrettable that children are not given more knowledge about health in schools at a younger age. Often parents may feel they do not have the knowledge to impart and these children can go on to struggle in later life.
Working as doctors is what led to us uncovering this dearth of knowledge that children are not exposed to. We feel it is our duty to pass on small bite size chunks of knowledge to children that will help them go on to lead more healthy lives, both in regards to their bodies and minds.
How can humor help deal with unfamiliar situations?
Great question!
The Only Book a Kid Needs to Read About Coronavirus Ever, as the title and book cover suggests, is a fun, illustrative book full of hilarious memes and comics. It begs to engage the reader in a very non conventional way for a typical paperback. I would describe it as graphic non fiction.
For the most part, this book can be seen as a very highly entertaining book with an underlying motive of a call to action. The idea is that children who read this book will have a deeper understanding and be more sensitive to the issues surrounding the pandemic. It is truly distinctive in it’s eccentric style of delivery and thus by far the most captivating coronavirus book I have read to date (if I do say so myself!)
What makes this kind of book such an effective learning tool?
Whilst most of the recent coronavirus books target younger kids, this book is best suited to an inquisitive age 9 plus. Being practicing doctors, we couldn’t help but dive into the nitty-gritty of the science, that most other books have shied away from. We worked hard to ensure the book would be a useful tool for looking up accurate, reliable information, and not just a one off entertaining read.
Science can be something children immediately associate with school, boredom and yawn yawn yawn! Breaking them out that mindset is something we have taken on as a challenge. As an expert, I can fully appreciate how science is intertwined with everyday life and understand the importance of why everyone should have a basic knowledge of it. On the other hand, for a child, it is introduced as a subject at school, often making it dull and tiresome.
Writing about science for children is a complex balance of providing useful information, whilst constantly applying it back to their everyday life. After all, a child will not engage with something that has no relevance to them. It must be something relatable to them or they will lose interest very quickly! Essentially children need a box of truth and explanation, wrapped up in relevance and meaning, tied with a bow of light hearted humour and presented to them in a comedic way. Tick all these boxes and they won’t want to put your book down. (NOT an easy task!)
Added information. This book is the first from our series Disgusting Doctors:
Our debut book is on the topic of Coronavirus as this is the most pressing, science related, global issue of today. The next book we have lined up is titled Ten Terrible Ideas Doctors Used To Think Were Wonderful. We are planning the release of this book prior to the new year. This book delves into the gory history of doctors from the past and some of the more bizarre ideas they have had. It is a more light hearted approach to an introduction into the history of medicine.
Moving forward we would like to see the series grow into a fully encompassing health and well being series focussing on aspects that relate specifically to children. We are passionate about providing kids with a “go to” for learning about the science of their body in a way that makes it easy for them to interpret and comprehend.
We firmly believe that knowledge is the most powerful medicine we can practice. After all prevention is a lot more effective than cure. If we can help children to understand important areas of health and their body, they can go on to live long, healthy and happy lives.
About the Authors:
Dr S G Jack is the penname for Dr Saira Goheer and Dr Jack Miftha. They are both doctors and also happen to be married! No easy task writing books together.
When Dr Saira is not seeing patients, she likes to bake cakes for birthdays and weddings. She has an avid fascination for creating things out of buttercream and refuses to work with fondant. She has an insatiable sweet tooth and tells her patients, "Do as I say, not as I do." Her favorite mode of transport is an electric scooter.
Dr Jack loves all things tech. He spent most of his childhood breaking things apart and putting them back together again. He has an obsession with space and loves nothing more than to argue with moon-landing deniers. When he isn't seeing patients, he likes to cycle, cook or play Playstation online with his other doctor friends. He isn't very good at Call of Duty.
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