Tu Youyou’s Discovery: Finding a Cure for Malaria - front cover
Songju Ma Daemicke’s book Tu Youyou’s Discovery: Finding a Cure for Malaria is a timely book and it will also turn into a classic book. While it’s definitely about Tu Youyou, her life, and the cure for malaria, it’s also about:
helping
obeying your calling
perseverance
“Reading the news in her Beijing apartment, Tu Youyou was distressed. Many people were suffering, and she had wanted to help save lives since she was a child.”
Songju begins Youyou’s story as an adult wondering how she can help save lives and then takes us back to Youyou’s childhood. She grew up in the time when education wasn’t a value for girls, but her family thought differently. Youyou, at the age of 15, was then in the hospital receiving antibiotics to fight off tuberculosis. After a few months she is back home, but still too weak for every day life.
Through rest and her mother’s herb soups (love that part!) she fully recovers and makes a decision that would change the lives of so many.
“She decided she wanted to study science and save lives, just as her life had been saved.”
In 1955, Youyou became a researcher at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing. Then in 1969, Malaria began to sweeping throughout the world. This, Youyou knew was her time to help with all her knowledge and because of her childhood experience.
She studied. Studied. Studied. She did not stop. She studied through books, first-hand experience with those sick with malaria. She went to them. Spoke to them. Asked them many questions. During one such interview, a farmer told her he had qinghao - sweet wormwood - and his fever had gone away!
After digging up some qinghao, it was back to the lab, and many tests. It didn’t work. Youyou and her team tried herb after herb. The cure failed each time. After more trial and error and even more studying, Youyou went back to qinghao and redesigned the experiment.
“After 190 unsuccessful experiments, the test result of sample 191 stunned the team. The qinghao extract [...] had killed the parasites completely!”
An ancient plant had been used to cure a new disease and it took someone who wanted to help. It took Youyou knowing her part in this journey and using all that she knew - using new medicine and reliant traditional medicine. She also, along with her team, never gave up. She did not quit.
I love Youyou’s story and am thankful Songju wrote it down for us to know and learn from. Tu Youyou’s Discovery would be a great book for any home library, but definitely for a homeschool library. It’s a huge part of history told as a story. It shows that problems do not get fixed overnight. It’s trial and error and lots of time! It takes more than one person and we shouldn’t turn a blind-eye to the traditional ways. A timeline, author’s note, and a lesson on the scientific method are also included as backmatter.
Lin is the illustrator for Youyou’s story. She has chosen a beautiful color palette of greens and yellows. It’s very natural and reminds you of plants, herbs, and natural remedies. I’m a fan!