Maddy Patti and the Great Curiosity: Helping Children Understand Diabetes

by Stan W. Borg, Mary Bilderback Abel, Lorraine Dey (Illustrator)

Maddy Patti is a young girl who goes to her grandfather's farm every summer to spend time with him and all of his animals. Maddy's grandfather, Pop-Pop, is a retired country doctor. During her visit to the farm, her friend Gideon Green tells her he has a disease called diabetes. Since Maddy Patti has the gift of being able to communicate with animals, they help her understand diabetes. Pop-Pop discusses diabetes with Gideon and explains that with proper care and a healthy diet Gideon can play, work, and have fun just like any other child. When one of Pop-Pop's goats gets into trouble, Gideon saves the day. Children who have friends suffering from diabetes, or who themselves confront the disease, learn more about their own and other's symptoms and problems, treatments, and prospering despite living with the disease.

48 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2015

Reviews

[Jane]

I send my thanks to Mary Bilderback-Abel, author and Goodreads First Reads Giveaway for my copy of Maddy Patti and the Great Curiosity: Helping Children Understand Diabetes that I won in the Giveaway.

Over the years of my teaching career, I have grown comfortable starting topics with children that are often difficult to understand or difficult to accept using a book written on the subject by an knowledgeable author, which Mary Bilderback-Abel has done with this story. She started with a character that loved animals and then used the love of animals and the animals too to present the subject in a manner that was interesting to young children. The methods of dealing with diabetes are covered including the resentment a child might feel by being different.

I shared the book with my preschool children and they had a good discussion and I loaned it to a teacher friend with a fifth grade class. She has a girl with diabetes in her room this year and read it aloud one morning as her teacher share book and it helped the class understand the reason for the constant snacks and monitoring of the blood sugar levels for the one girl and started a good discussion on how to accept and help her and what to watch for if she started to have a problem.

[Janet]

Very good book with lots of info about diabetes and awesome pictures. I'm a diabetic and I enjoyed reading the info. Is an easy and fun way 2 learn about diabetes.

I plan on reading this book 2 all my grandkids and then donate it 2 my local school library so other kids can understand diabetes better.

I won this book from goodreads 2 review.