Maxine’s Critters Get the Vaccine Jitters A cheerful and encouraging story to soothe kids’ covid vaccine fears by Jan Zauzmer

I received an e-arc of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book with my soon to be 5 year old and 8 year old boys who will soon be getting their covid vaccination. As a parent I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read a book to my children that can address their fears etc of a potentially scary new thing they’ll be doing. 

However as someone who has read a lot of rhyming children’s books and when I say a lot I mean - seriously a lot. At one point I even had a job where about 50% of it was literally reading rhyming picture books to K-3rd graders. I do feel that the formatting of the word placement in this book to assist the reader to find the appropriate rhythm could have been improved a small amount. Additionally the syllabic distribution of the words to create a reading rhythm could have also been improved. Rhyming books when done really well are amazing for kids, they really hold their attention and stick with them and children enjoy reading them over and over. 

The intention of this book is exceptional and very timely. I do feel the reasoning behind becoming vaccinated could have been further addressed. As a parent who has explained this many many many times only one reason was given in this book - so you - the kid getting the shot doesn’t get sick. While that is valid there are many reasons for vaccination. So that children who are unable to get vaccinated due to immune system complications or youth don’t get sick for example. The last thing any empathetic person would want is to take a child who is already severely ill with cancer and to give them a severe illness on top of that. I understand that the concept of kids with cancer is a whole other can of worms that not everyone would want to address at the same time but for me personally I try not to shield my children too far from the realities that other children face.

So all in all, great purpose, engaging colorful pictures, good use of introducing the topic with pretend play involving stuffed animals and then bringing home how it applies to the child with her own visit. Great to show the Dad very involved. 

4/5 for us.