Health-care book for kids

Gentle tale informative and encouraging

Maria’s Marvelous Bones by Dr. Carrie Kollias, iIlustrations by Gill Guile

This soft-cover children’s book, by Lethbridge orthopedic surgeon Dr. Carrie Kollias, is meant to familiarize children with the process of setting a broken bone. As a surgeon who specializes in the care of children, Kollias saw a need for a story about bones, not just another book full of diagrams and labels.

The story is introduced as an adventure, which starts with a playtime mishap and proceeds through several hospital departments. Lead character Maria meets friendly, helpful professionals and demonstrates her bravery by cooperating with them.

Weeks later, Maria returns for a checkup and eventually her cast is removed when her bones are fully healed. It is a gentle tale, encouraging and informative, without being frightening. Even the artwork by Gil Guile has a softedged quality. Accurate medical terms are used throughout and each is describe in child-friendly language. For example, one of Maria’s doctors tells her “callus” is “a big ball of bone glue.” A slight distraction was the seemingly random use of capital letters on some words.

Alert readers may also notice that the health-care professionals depicted are mostly women, and ethnically diverse. Publisher’s notes provided advise us that Kollias is a supporter of the #ilookLikeaSurgeon movement, which seeks to increase diversity in surgical specialties.

I applaud author Kollias’ intention to demystify pediatric emergency room visits, although her version is somewhat rose-tinted as befits the tender age of her target readers. “Maria’s Marvelous Bones” would be a useful addition to any family library because it serves to educate children about an experience they will (hopefully) not have firsthand. If even one child is less afraid to visit the ER, writer Kollias and illustrator Guile will have succeeded.

Reviewed by Alice Matisz

Lethbridge

Publisher’s Note:

Dr. Carrie Kollias will be hosting a book launch in Lethbridge at The Stoketown Cafe (333 6 St. S.) on Wednesday, Sept. 12 from 6-8 p.m.