I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures [Book Review]

Beccia, Carlyn. I Feel Better with a Frog in My Thoat: History's Strangest Cures. Illustrated by Carlyn Beccia. Houghton Mifflin, 2010. ISBN 9780547225708. $17.99. 48 p. Reviewer: Ruth-Anne Brown Reading level: Preschool, Primary, Intermediate Rating: Outstanding Genre: Informative; Informational Books; Subject: Therapeutics—History—Juvenile literature.; Traditional medicine—History—Juvenile literature.; Medical misconceptions—History—Juvenile literature.; Books—Reviews; Kids and adults alike will love to guess which crazy remedies used in the past actually work. Sections include ancient cures for cough, cold, sore throat, wound, stomachache, fever, and headache. After describing each remedy, the history and validity of each cure is revealed. Remedies date back to the cavemen, ancient Egyptians, and Medieval period. Readers will love learning about medical treatment like being shocked by an electric eel, eating dirt, and wearing a necklace of worms. Beccia scribes an entertaining book and illustrates it with colorful images of people throughout history. Using painting-like mixed media images, Beccia hilariously depicts each victim with a medicine of the time. Parents and teachers will have no problems getting any child to sit still as they listen and participate in this read-aloud. Volume 31, no.3 (January/February 2011) ; 48 p. ; Children's Book and Play Review, February 2011