The challenge for young readers: follow the scientific quest to finding the world's first vaccines—and move towards a future of saving lives worldwide.

Thanks to modern vaccines, many diseases, such as smallpox, cholera, and polio, have been virtually eradicated. Before the discovery of vaccines, however, epidemics killed thousands of people worldwide every year.

Killing Germs, Saving Lives traces the path to the creation of the vaccines that revolutionized modern medicine. Young readers learn of the background to this historic quest through fascinating profiles of the men and women whose breakthroughs changed the world. Personal portraits of the scientists involved give aspiring young scientists a look at great figures like Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, and Florence Nightingale.

Readers will tour the germ-filled hospitals of the past, examine the current state of vaccine research, and look ahead to future developments in this fascinating scientific field.