Tiny Stitches

Review
By Publishers Weekly ShelfTalker

And in the spirit of celebrating a multitude of voices, I want to recommend a terrific recent picture book, Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks, illustrated by Colin Bootman (Lee & Low). The other day, my colleague Sandy asked if I had read this book yet. “It’s extraordinary!” she said. “My favorite new picture book!” Sandy has excellent taste, so I immediately grabbed a copy and read it. I was astonished to read about a medical innovator I’d never heard of, a Black doctor in the 1940s who pioneered successful open-heart surgery techniques on infants and babies. I am so grateful for this picture book for introducing a whole generation of readers to an extraordinary medical hero.