Hoyt, Megan. Kati’s Tiny Messengers. New York: Quill Tree Books, 2023.
Young Kati loved science. She loved observing, experimenting, and thinking about the world around her. She especially liked learning about the human body and how all the parts worked together. Kati’s family was poor and lived in a one-room house with no running water, but that did not stop her from studying hard. She finished high school with the top grades in her class and was accepted into university, earning a BSc in biology and a PhD in biochemistry, and then continuing her research into the genetic code inside cells and the messenger RNA inside the nucleus of each cell. She was sure that those tiny messengers could be used to fight viruses. Meanwhile, Kati got married. She had a baby daughter. But she kept working in her lab until her university ran out of money and she lost her job. What would she do now? Kati and her husband decided to leave Hungary and move to the United States, where she found a new job. For over 30 years, she worked with other scientists to discover how mRNA could be used to help the human body fight off viruses. And then the Covid-19 pandemic arrived. Suddenly, all Kati had discovered during her decades of research was urgently needed. She and her team quickly prepared a vaccine, which was tested on thousands of volunteers. It worked. Katalin Karikó’s lifetime of research had proven itself. This picture book biography – illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger – is highly recommended as a read-aloud for children 6 to 10 years old. It is even more highly recommended – despite the storytelling style – for older students who prefer nonfiction and middle school teachers who want to expand the general knowledge of their students. An afterword includes a timeline, detailed information about DNA and RNA, and a message from Katalin Karikó.
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