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Henrietta Lacks: The Mother of Modern Medicine introduces young readers to the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancer cells revolutionised medical science.
This book charts Henrietta’s life, from her upbringing in Virginia through to the births of her five children, before she passed away aged 31 from cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells lived on, taken from her tumour while she was undergoing surgery without her knowledge, leading to the discovery of the first ‘immortal cell line’, and giving Henrietta the name ‘the mother of modern medicine’. It tracks the ongoing impact of the HeLa cells, as well as exploring the intersection between race and medicine.
Through its melding of science and history,
Henrietta Lacks introduces the world of STEM to a new audience, and will delight and fascinate young readers.
About the author
Dawne Allette is a native of Grenada, West Indies, and has written a number of children's picture books that are noted for their inspiration, lyricism and humour. She has lived in Britain and Iran and now resides in Baltimore, USA. She teaches creative writing and is a literacy programme facilitator for Baltimore Public Schools. She is also a journalist for the Baltimore Times newspaper.
Summary
Henrietta Lacks: The Mother of Modern Medicine introduces young readers to the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancer cells revolutionised medical science.
This book charts Henrietta’s life, from her upbringing in Virginia through to the births of her five children, before she passed away aged 31 from cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells lived on, taken from her tumour while she was undergoing surgery without her knowledge, leading to the discovery of the first ‘immortal cell line’, and giving Henrietta the name ‘the mother of modern medicine’. It tracks the ongoing impact of the HeLa cells, as well as exploring the intersection between race and medicine.
Through its melding of science and history, Henrietta Lacks introduces the world of STEM to a new audience, and will delight and fascinate young readers.
Foreword
• Focused national media campaign to accompany launch
• Online marketing campaign to build buzz
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- Downloadable worksheet to accompany all purchases exploring options for wordsearch, colouring by numbers sheet etc
Marketing
- NetGalley feed out for early reviews and audience response testing
- Gifting to select parent-child influencers with giveaway offer for their audience should they like the book
- Target STEM focused institutions with hopes of early ordering: STEM Like A Girl, Vivify STEM Education etc
- Target Museums, Libraries and Educational spaces with focus on early adaptation of the book into bookshops, curriculum and featured reads for their audience
- Considered partnerships with Good Reads, Bookshop.org, LoveReading Kids for marketing promotions
- Work with the Bibliogroup on targeted blog tours in North American market and organise similar across other target markets, aiming for social media image flooding that excited readership
Video Pushes
- Character focused video developed for social media to be shared with education and library sectors to feed into their networks. Video will also be distilled across paid and organic social channels, reintroducing the person of Henrietta Lacks to our market
- Author created video for organic social feed out to bring personality into the story telling journey – feed out into YouTube with SEO and metadata alignment for wider discovery
- Book still and video images used for awareness and conversion maximisation on FB, Instagram, Twitter
- Email marketing, feeding out created content at intervals to global audience, creating awareness and driving conversion with offers and book import etc
Event
- Partner with key children's book organisations like KnightsOf, Tristyns Bookclub etc for events that are a blend of readings and science explorations for the audiences.
