THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

by Rebecca Skloot

What an truly incredible story. A poor, black woman named Henrietta Lacks, from Clover, Virginia,  dies a painful death of cervical cancer in 1951. No one would know her remarkable story... unless a science journalist, Rebecca Skloot, took it upon herself to investigate Henrietta and HeLa cells and write this best seller. 

After ten years of investigating, Rebecca discovers that unbeknown to Henrietta's family, her doctor had taken samples of her cancerous cells and was experimenting with them in his laboratory. 

Amazingly, Henrietta's cells stayed alive and multiplied at such a rate her doctor was able to use them in important medical research, including developing the polio vaccine, cloning, in vitro fertilisation and more. Her cells have been sold for billions of dollars and were the first living cells to be taken into space. It is twenty years on before her family become aware of what has happened and that in a strange way she is still living on. 

This books raises many questions regarding medicine, ethics and race issues. A fascinating book.

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HITLER'S DAUGHTER

HITLER’S DAUGHTER   by Jackie French   (YA fiction)

Although this is not a new release this was a great little book and a real easy read. A group of four school friends waiting for their bus ask Anna to tell them a story, which she had done many times before, but this time it was a little different. She tells the story of a girl named Heidi who was the daughter of Hitler. The story is told with such feeling and great detail and the children are mesmerized, none more than Mark, who thinks what he would do if he was put in Heidi’s place. Questions arise for Mark like… if he knew his father was evil or doing terrible things to others would he be able to do anything about it? If your mother or father are capable of evil things does that mean their children will follow in their path?