Masked Hero

Praise

This smoothly written picture book—written byWu’s great-granddaughter, an American doctor, and inspired by her daughter’s first-grade writingassignment—introduces a heroic researcher whose practical approach to disease preventionsaved many lives, notably during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Wee’s pleasing digital artillustrates the story within effective period settings. This picture-book biography showcases asignificant, lesser-known East Asian scientist/physician.
—Booklist

The mother and daughter co-authors, both descendants of their subject, trace the course of Wu’s career. . . . They deftly cast light on medical issues and the racism Wu faced, drawing parallels between past and present. . . . Chockablock with timely themes and connections to recent world-shaking events.
—Kirkus Reviews

Woo Liu’s great-grandfather, physician Wu Lien-teh (1879–1960), stars in a biography that focuses on its protagonist’s implementation of face masks to combat disease. . . When a ‘terrible disease’ sweeps through Northeast China, Lien-teh is asked to help. The gauze masks that the physician innovates end the outbreak, and later prove useful during the 1918 flu and as a prototype for Covid-combatting masks that ‘became part of everyday life.’
—Publishers Weekly

Despite the discrimination and doubts Lien-teh faced, his perseverance and courage to invent an effective face mask has proven its worth to humanity, time and time again. . . ‘Masked Hero: How Wu Lien-teh Invented the Mask That Ended an Epidemic’ is a fascinating, inspirational story in every way.
—The Reading Eagle