The depiction of health care workers in books for older readers is, perhaps unsurprisingly, more nuanced than that for younger readers; in books written by BAME authors, the strenuous and often financially- unrewarded nature of health care jobs is depicted more often. Trish Cooke’s The Diary of a Young West Indian Immigrant: Gloria Charles, Britain 1965 might suggest a return to the Ladybird stereotype of Afro-Caribbean nurses, but Gloria’s mother is ‘working part-time in the hospital. She cleans there from four o’clock to eight o’clock’ (32) while Gloria’s dad works long hours in a factory and Gloria watches her younger brother after school, trying to squeeze in homework. Cleaners, porters, and other necessary NHS jobs are often overlooked as low-skilled and unimportant, but Cooke’s story shows how vital this work was for a family—and for the NHS. Catherine Johnson’s Sawbones (2013), though set in the 18th century, nonetheless demonstrates the extra burden of being Black in the medical profession; Ezra MacAdam is treated as less than capable by many white Britons, and regularly faces casual racism in his everyday work. Sawbones is an adventure story, but like The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole, Johnson’s tale cannot be an adventure purely innocent of British racism.


In the past decade, books aimed at middle grade / Key Stage 2 readers have often included BAME parents who are health workers. Candy Gourlay’s Tall Story, (2010) includes Bernardo and Andi’s Filipino mother an Accident and Emergency nurse who is ‘always working. Night shifts and twelve-hour shifts and this shift and that shift.’ (p 27). Hilary Mckay’s The Time of Green Magic, (2019) has Abi’s British Jamaican father Theo, also an A & E nurse.


One of the most recent to be published, Roopa Farooki’s The Cure for a Crime (2020) deserves special mention in this particular column. Farooki had already achieved critical appraisal and success as a writer of 6 novels for adults before she decided to train as a doctor and has recently been working on a Covid-19 ward. Her children’s debut, the first in the Double Detectives Medical Mystery series is as fast- paced as they come. Twins Ali and Tulip investigate the apparent ill-health of their mum, a doctor. Any concerns that a story featuring a medical South Asian character may conform to a popular trope are off-set by the inclusion of the twins’ double-amputee Grandmother, a


Karen Sands-O’Connor is the British Academy Global Professor for Children’s Literature at Newcastle University. Her books include Children’s Publishing and Black Britain 1965- 2015 (Palgrave Macmillan 2017).


spy with hi-tec equipment and an impressive array of skills. Perhaps unusually for contemporary children’s fiction, Farooki manages to keep the children centre-stage without diminishing the importance of the multi-generational family. Terms rarely seen in books for this age group – medical and non-medical – are used and explained; ‘Munchausen by proxy’ is introduced, and Brian Sturgeon the Brain Surgeon is fully aware of the existence of ‘nominative determinism’. Chapters are occasionally interspersed with summaries of medical blog posts written by the twins and included in an appendix. This includes a Bristol Stool Chart – no doubt fascinating to many young readers – and rather presciently, an illustrated guide of how to wash one’s hands thoroughly. A BAME doctor penning a children’s book where order is restored through courage and the application of medical knowledge could not have happened at a more appropriate time.


Books mentioned: Hoorah for Mary Seacole, Trish Cooke, illus Anni Axworthy, Franklin Watts, 978-0749674137, £4.99pbk The Extraordinary Life of Mary Seacole, Naida Redgrave, illus Alleanna Harris, Puffin, 978-0241372777, £6.99 pbk Busy People: The Doctor, Lucy M. George, illus AndoTwin, QED, 978-1784931520, £6.99 pbk Through My Window, Tony Bradman, illus Eileen Browne, Francis Lincoln Children’s Books Under My Hijab, Hena Khan, illus Aaliya Jaleel, Lee and Low Books, 978-1620147924, £12.52pbk The Girls, Lauren Ace, illus Jenny Løvlie, Caterpillar Books, 978-1848578432, £6.99pbk Sawbones, Catherine Johnson, Walker Books, 978-1406340570, £4.99 pbk Tall Story, Candy Gourlay, Tamarind, 978-1848531376, £6.99 pbk The Time of Green Magic, Hilary McKay, Macmillan Children’s Books, 978-1529019230, £12.99 hbk The Cure for a Crime, Roopa Farooki, OUP, 978-0192773593, £6.99 pbk


Darren Chetty is a teacher, doctoral researcher and writer with research interests in education, philosophy, racism, children’s literature and hip hop culture. He is a contributor to The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla and the author, with Jeffrey Boakye, of What Is Masculinity? Why Does It Matter? And Other Big Questions. He tweets at @rapclassroom.


Books for Keeps No.242 May 2020 17


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