Review of “Nurse Florence, What Are Amino Acids?” by Michael Dow

​Score: 93/100 (9.3 out of 10)

Have you ever wondered what we're made of? Our skin? Our hair? Our muscles?
Have you ever thought about what makes up the protein in the meats we eat?

Nurse Florence, What Are Amino Acids? by Michael Dow explores many of these questions and quite a bit more. Like many of Dow's books, this one dives all-in on the topic, challenging young readers to open their minds to relatively advanced jargon and medical/scientific concepts.

This book proves to be among the best in Dow's collection. It's far from perfect, but it's a step forward in the right direction.

One of the key complaints we've had with previous Dow books is that they tend to lack character motivation and/or an inciting incident. The characters in these books just seem to conveniently be curious about certain topics, then start talking about it.

Thankfully, in this book, some character motivations are provided, specifically because the main characters—Jean, Condi, and Sonya—have just finished learning about building materials used in the Ancient Roman Empire. They start to wonder what kinds of building materials make them up, and the answer turns out to be amino acids, the components that make up protein.

Now, this really isn't the best set up or character motivation, but at least it is a set up and a character motivation. A better set up and character motivation would be if one or more of the characters started getting into lifting weights and/or working out, then learning about the importance of protein and amino acids. It's kinda a stretch that a student's mind would go from “Wow, Rome was built out of brick, tile, and concrete” to “I wonder what I'm made of...” It's not impossible, it's just improbable. However, we commend a motivation even being there.

In Nurse Florence, What is Asthma?, the character Jean was actually experiencing difficulty breathing and shortness of breath associated with her asthma, prompting her to want to know more about her condition. That was more than adequate character motivation.

Anyway, in Nurse Florence, What Are Amino Acids?, appropriately brings us to the dinner table—or, perhaps more specifically, the lunch room. It is there where the students can have a rather great and exhaustive conversation with the titular Nurse Florence about the amino acids that make up them and their foods.

Nurse Florence is able to use her smartphone, which seems to contain either a search engine or medical terminology app, to show them each of the essential amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. We're also told that we're made up of 20 amino acids!

Now, this book does a pretty decent job at showing and explaining the chemical structure of these amino acids and what kinds of foods the amino acids are found.

We do wish the author took the opportunity to describe what these individual amino acids actually do. Not only would it have been interesting and educational, but kids are far more likely to remember those descriptions than precise chemical structures involving electrons and double bonds. For example, it would've been far more interesting and engaging if the author had described leucine's role in triggering protein synthesis. It would've been far more relatable and understandable if the author had described how too much tryptophan can make us sleepy (like after Thanksgiving dinner) or how too much phenylalanine can make us dizzy (like with phenylketonuria). It just seems like a huge missed opportunity and an excess of emphasis in the wrong department (chemical structures). But that's the author's choice, and we have to respect it.

The illustrations by Ana Maia are decent, although more on the cartoonish side. At least they aren't off-putting. The cast of characters is ethnically and racially diverse and look relatable and friendly enough.

The writing is a little on the rougher side. It's not just that the language/jargon can be complex for children, it's that there are minor issues like dialogue by different people not being separated in different paragraphs. For example, on page 3, both Sonya and Condi talk in the same paragraph. It should be separated into two paragraphs.

If there's something this book does well, it's to encourage people (including vegans and vegetarians) to eat a balanced and varied diet. Nurse Florence tells the students (and, in turn, the readers) that different foods have different quantities of each amino acid, and that many vegetarian/vegan sources include incomplete proteins (missing one or more essential amino-acids). Nurse Florence is able to explain how meats tend to be complete proteins. However, vegans and vegetarians can still get complete proteins by eating things like tofu, hemp seeds, and quorn.

Check it out on Amazon!