Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

A nurse's gastrointestinal battle with dysentery is paired with the horrors of World War I trench warfare in this graphic novel.It is 1916, and Annie, a white Australian nurse stationed in France, is tending to the wounded who come pouring in from the Western Front. But another fight, unbeknownst to her, is going on in her gastrointestinal tract. A wounded man she treats has bloody diarrhea that turns out to be dysentery. Annie is accidentally contaminated with the bacteria. How she gets infected is rather gross—but that's this story's strength. Blood, mucous, diarrhea, amputated limbs, death—it's all here, presented in a frank way. While Annie's story is fictional, the events of the war and the biology presented are fact, detailed further in extensive backmatter. The black-and-white illustrations tell it like it is—when Annie has diarrhea, she is shown sitting on the toilet. But it is the panels and storyline about the microbes that highlight both the illustrator's and authors' skills. The battle between the Shigella (dysentery-causing) bacteria and the many kinds of viruses, bacteroides, prevotella, and other microorganisms that Annie's body activates to defend itself has the tension of an epic battle, and readers will alternately be gripped with anxiety (will the good microbes win?), filled with wonder at the amazing defenses of the human body, and grossed out (talking about you, mucous.)Grossly fabulous. (map, historical and scientific information) (Graphic science/historical fiction. 12-16)

ALA Booklist (Wed May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Here's the most bizarre concept of the year, possibly ever: splitting the story's perspective between a WWI nurse who contracts a deadly case of dysentery and the dysentery itself. Yes, you read that correctly. While we follow Sister Annie, an empathic nurse, through rounds in a WWI Casualty Clearing Center, we also follow the Shiga Gang, the Shigella Flexner bacteria infecting her innards ("Sweet! Now we gonna partay!" shout the bacteria) as her immune system mounts a counterattack. Perhaps this inner struggle is a metaphor for the devastating war raging outside, and then, perhaps, it's actually the other way around. In any case, it could be difficult to sell such a concept to most tween readers, and not just because bloody feces play such a central role. However, Wild and Barr have a contagious passion for their subject, and leaving this out for casual browsing could work wonders e cool/gross supermagnified depictions of bacteria and viruses help considerably. Includes explanatory text on both the history and the science, which it will be very helpful to read first.

Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Created by Briony Barr and Gregory Crocetti. After caring for a WWI soldier infected with dysentery on the Western Front in 1916, Sister Annie Barnaby, a nurse, contracts the disease herself. As the invading Shigella bacteria wreak havoc in her gut, Annie's body--via bacteriophage--fights back: "You infect, we protect!" Black-and-white panels focus on a microcosmic life-or-death battle in this engrossing graphic-novel mash-up of historical fiction and medical science.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A nurse's gastrointestinal battle with dysentery is paired with the horrors of World War I trench warfare in this graphic novel.It is 1916, and Annie, a white Australian nurse stationed in France, is tending to the wounded who come pouring in from the Western Front. But another fight, unbeknownst to her, is going on in her gastrointestinal tract. A wounded man she treats has bloody diarrhea that turns out to be dysentery. Annie is accidentally contaminated with the bacteria. How she gets infected is rather gross—but that's this story's strength. Blood, mucous, diarrhea, amputated limbs, death—it's all here, presented in a frank way. While Annie's story is fictional, the events of the war and the biology presented are fact, detailed further in extensive backmatter. The black-and-white illustrations tell it like it is—when Annie has diarrhea, she is shown sitting on the toilet. But it is the panels and storyline about the microbes that highlight both the illustrator's and authors' skills. The battle between the Shigella (dysentery-causing) bacteria and the many kinds of viruses, bacteroides, prevotella, and other microorganisms that Annie's body activates to defend itself has the tension of an epic battle, and readers will alternately be gripped with anxiety (will the good microbes win?), filled with wonder at the amazing defenses of the human body, and grossed out (talking about you, mucous.)Grossly fabulous. (map, historical and scientific information) (Graphic science/historical fiction. 12-16)