From School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up-An excellent resource for basic research for personal or academic use. The disease is carefully described, with effective black-and-white graphics, charts, and photos, showing blood biology and the circulatory system and the various levels of severity (depending on what clotting factors the individual is missing). The description of the heredity process is a virtual primer in genetics and is a valuable tool for understanding sex-linked genetic factors. The historical impacts of hemophilia are fascinating (Queen Victoria's mutated gene caused royal havoc worldwide), but is most sobering in contemporary society, where the life-saving treatments of transfusions were, for a long time, followed by high-death rates from transfusion-related AIDS. Most chapters are introduced with a case history, raising the scientific complexity and legal issues to a personal level. Students will be especially interested in the plights of Ryan White (who graces the cover) and Ricky Ray, whose life and death resulted in important legislation. The chapter on prevention is at first misleading, however, since the only mode of prevention is not to have children, so it is instead an explication on avoiding situations that lead to bleeding. The book includes a question-and-answer section and a well-rounded time line.
Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
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