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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Virus Hunters
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.amycherrix.com/
CITY: Asheville
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 400
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Asheville, NC; daughter of Marty Keener Cherrix.
EDUCATION:University of North Carolina at Greensboro, B.A., 1994; Simmons College, M.A. (children’s literature), 2011.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Editor and writer. Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA, bookseller, 2009-12; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, MA, editorial associate, 2011-14; Slush Pile Press (editorial and content development company), Asheville, NC, founder and editor, 2015—. Malaprop’s Bookstore & Cafe, Asheville, book buyer; Two Hoots Press, Asheville, cofounder with mother, Marty Keener Cherrix, and editor; Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, author liaison. Simmons College, online adjunct instructor, 2012; presenter at schools.
AVOCATIONS:Ballet, roller skating, typography and hand-lettering.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to newspapers and magazines, both print and online; editor of reviews for the Horn Book Guide.
SIDELIGHTS
Amy Cherrix writes picture books as well as nonfiction for middle-grade and young-adult readers. With a master’s degree in children’s literature, she has also worked as a children’s book buyer for an independent bookshop. Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, she continues to make that city her home. As is noted on her website, Asheville is “less than an hour from a formerly top secret NASA tracking station—a fact that undoubtedly inspired her love of science, and fueled her early fascination with hidden history.”
Writing for a middle grade audience, Cherrix penned a pair of books in Houghton Mifflin’s award-winning “Scientists in the Field” series: Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code and Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes, and the Rise of Urban Wildlife.
Eye of the Storm, from 2017, opens with a dramatic account of one family’s experiences with Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The author then focuses on the larger theme of the physics of hurricane formation and the research on that topic being conducted at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Much of the book details the work done to understand the early phases of hurricanes, aided by information collected by a Global Hawk drone, and also describes the effects of hurricanes and tropical storms around the world. The effects can be dramatic; as Cherrix points out, the 1970 Bhola cyclone in the Indian Ocean led to the creation of a new nation, Bangladesh. Cherrix also provides profiles of researchers and meteorologists in the field, as well as numerous photographs, charts, and maps. Reviewing the work, School Library Journal writer Bob Hassett concluded: “Well researched and engagingly written, this is an occasionally fascinating entry on hurricane prediction for middle schoolers” and one that “robust science collections should consider.” A Kirkus Reviews critic commented: “Suggest to able teen readers who already have the appropriate background knowledge.”
In Backyard Bears, from 2018, Cherrix examines the effects of humans encroaching on the habitat of wild animals by focusing on a case study of such a situation in her own backyard: Asheville, North Carolina. In western North Carolina, humans are moving into the natural habitat of black bears in the region, and conservationists are studying how humans and wild animals can coexist in the same habitat. Cherrix accompanies a team of biologists who record the frequency of bears appearing on private property in an effort to balance the concerns of all parties. Cherrix also provides a chapter on other wild animals whose eco-systems now are shared with humans, from “leopards in urban Mumbai to feral chickens in Hawaii,” according to Danielle J. Ford, writing in Horn Book. Ford termed this book an “encouraging case study of efforts to manage black bear populations in and around Asheville.” Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews critic termed this “another inviting example of scientific field work in a consistently appealing series.”
With her 2021 work In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race, Cherrix writes for a young adult audience, providing a new perspective on the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for space flight. The author focuses on two men—Wernher von Braun and Sergei Korolev—to propel this true story. These two were the leading scientists respectively for the U.S. and Soviet space programs, and each had a checkered past. Von Braun was a high-ranking Nazi and SS officer during World War II, and he developed the deadly V-2 missiles for Germany. After the war, Von Braun surrendered to the Americans, and despite his SS background, he was—because of his expertise in rockets—taken into the U.S. science team that ultimately developed the Saturn rockets. Korolev, for his part, was arrested during Stalin’s purges but managed to survive the gulag. He went on to develop the Sputnik rocket. The background of both of these scientists was kept from the public for years. Writing in School Library Journal, Karen Bilton had praise for In the Shadow of the Moon, noting: “This book contains numerous interesting biographical and technological facts, which results in an engaging, fast-paced narrative that will delight readers of history and space technology. A worthy addition to all libraries serving teens.” Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews contributor called the work “a well-researched, detailed account of two leading engineers in the space race that raises questions about the human costs of war and propaganda,” adding that it is “engrossing and painfully relevant.”
Cherrix focuses on interesting animal behavior in Animal Architects, illustrated by Chris Sasaki. Specifically, Cherrix relates how twelve different species—including the trapdoor spider, prairie dogs, and cathedral termites—construct their homes. “Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Cherrix followed this book with a companion effort, Animal Superpowers, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon, published in 2023.
In her picture book Good Night, Little Bookstore, illustrated by E.B. Goodale, Cherrix highlights closing time at an independent neighborhood bookstore, the Little Bookstore on Little Street. Young readers finish with the books they’ve been exploring, while dogs coexist with the store cat. Meanwhile, the bookstore’s workers clean up the store and prepare for the next day’s opening. A Publishers Weekly critic called the book “an inclusive volume that celebrates the bookstore as a cozy, comfortable—and crucial—corner of community.”
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In her nonfiction book, Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike, Cherrix praises the work of scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, public health professionals, and infectious disease experts who care for the public during a pandemic. She explains how these people work like detectives to determine what virus, bacteria, or other pathogen is harming people, then experiment and use historical data to figure out a cure or vaccine. The book explores the work of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, pioneering advancements in vaccines, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s work in both HIV/AIDS and COVID, and how to prevent a future pandemic.
“Positioning epidemiologists as forensic detectives, Cherrix examines six case studies that convey the scope and importance of their work,” according to Jonathan Hunt in Horn Book, which rated Virus Hunters an outstanding example of its genre. The six previous worldwide pandemics or health outbreaks are: cholera in the 1880s in London, the 1918 influenza pandemic, the work that went into eradicating small pox around the world, a rodent-borne hantavirus outbreak in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico in 1993, the HIV/AIDS virus that began in the 1980s, and the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic. The comprehensive book includes sidebars, photographs, bibliography, source notes, and an index.
In an interview with Horn Book, Cherrix explained how she presented the information for young readers: “For Virus Hunters, a longer-form narrative strategy was needed to place each of the book’s six outbreaks in the proper context and meticulously cite sources… To bring characters to life and write an engaging story, I interviewed as many primary sources as possible.” She also used historical accounts, transcripts, memoirs, oral histories, newspaper and magazine articles, and photographs that helped her write a “‘feels-like-you’re-there’ narrative and clearly explain scientific concepts.” In Kirkus Reviews, a critic commented: “The straightforward language…and human-focused narrative structure make for a readable book, bolstered by sidebars and extensive backmatter for credibility.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2017, Julia Smith, review of Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code, p. 42.
Horn Book, July-August, 2017, Betty Carter, review of Eye of the Storm, p. 150; November-December, 2018, Danielle J. Ford, review of Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes, and the Rise of Urban Wildlife, p. 98; January-February 2025, Jonathan Hunt, review of Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike, p. 99.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017, review of Eye of the Storm, September 1, 2018, review of Backyard Bears; December 15, 2020, review of In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race; August 1, 2021, review of Animal Architects; June 15, 2022, review of Good Night, Little Bookstore; August 15, 2024, review of Virus Hunters.
Publishers Weekly, July 26, 2021, review of Animal Architects, p. 86; July 11, 2022, review of Good Night, Little Bookstore, p. 77.
School Library Journal, May, 2017, Bob Hassett, review of Eye of the Storm, p. 121; January 1, 2021, Karen Bilton, review of In the Shadow of the Moon, p. 89.
ONLINE
Amy Cherrix website, https://www.amycherrix.com (May 15, 2023).*
Horn Book, https://www.hbook.com/ (February 19, 2025), “Five Questions for Amy Cherrix.”
EXPANDED BIO:
Amy Cherrix grew up in quirky Asheville, NC, less than an hour from a formerly top secret NASA tracking station--a fact that inspired her love of science, and fueled her early fascination with hidden history. For six years she had the best job in the world as the children's book buyer at the fiercely independent Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC.
Amy’s books include: Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike (Harper Collins); In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race (Harper Collins); Goodnight, Little Bookstore, illustrated by E.B. Goodale (Candlewick Press); Animal Super Powers, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Simon & Schuster); Animal Architects (Simon & Schuster); and two books in Harper Collins’ award-winning Scientists in the Field series: Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes, and the Rise of Urban Wildlife and Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code, a finalist for the Subaru Prize for Excellence in Middle Grade Science Books.
Another book is forthcoming! The non-fiction picture book, The United States of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals will be published by Macmillan Publishers in autumn 2026.
Amy holds a master's degree in children's literature from Simmons University. If she isn't reading, writing, or scouring the Internet for late-breaking science and nature news, you can find her on Instagram and YouTube @amycherrix. She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette at the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
ABRIDGED bio:
Amy’s books have earned starred reviews, been chosen as Indie Next selections, won Junior Library Guild awards, and named to best-books-of-the-year lists by Kirkus Reviews, Bank Street College, The Horn Book, and the New York Public Library. She is the author of the acclaimed young adult middle grade and non-fiction books: Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike and In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race. She is the author of two non-fiction picture books: Animal Superpowers and Animal Architects as well as the picture book, Good Night, Little Bookstore. She wrote two middle grade nonfiction books in the award-winning Scientists in the Field series: Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes, and the Rise of Urban Wildlife, and Eye of the Storm: NASA, Drones, and the Race to Crack the Hurricane Code, a finalist for the Subaru Prize for Excellence in middle grade science books.
Her forthcoming non-fiction picture book, The United States of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, will be published by Macmillan in 2026.
Amy lives in North Carolina.
Five questions for Amy Cherrix
by Horn Book
Feb 19, 2025 | Filed in Newsletters
Amy Cherrix’s meticulously researched page-turner Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike (Harper/HarperCollins, 8–12 years) puts a timely topic in context by examining the important work of epidemiologists in six case studies at various moments in history. For more scientific middle-grade nonfiction, see our list “Real science” in this issue of Notes.
1. You’ve written nonfiction in a variety of formats for various age levels. What’s the process of deciding what form a topic will take?
Photo courtesy of Amy Cherrix.
Amy Cherrix: Once I am satisfied that sufficient primary source material is available to cover my topic, the subject matter determines the format. For Virus Hunters, a longer-form narrative strategy was needed to place each of the book’s six outbreaks in the proper context and meticulously cite sources.
I first had the idea for the book in March of 2020, a time when the world was clamoring for any shred of new information to explain what was happening with the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon, I was devouring primary source histories of past outbreaks and pandemics. I knew that when another pandemic inevitably occurred in the future, young readers would need information that I didn’t have at that time.
2. How do you draw in readers and make a potentially complex subject (epidemiology) compelling? How did this book’s organization/order evolve?
AC: With the exception of the opening story, set in 1993, the sections are chronological. I knew it had to culminate in the COVID-19 pandemic to show how public health science has evolved over time, paving the way for development of the COVID-crushing mRNA vaccines.
To bring characters to life and write an engaging story, I interviewed as many primary sources as possible. After vaccines made it safe to travel again, I visited the CDC in Atlanta to meet officers in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, as well as microbiologists, chemists, and virologists who work on the front lines of disease outbreaks. These interviews, along with meeting transcripts, memoirs, oral histories, newspaper and magazine articles, photographs, and other historical accounts helped me write a “feels-like-you’re-there” narrative and clearly explain scientific concepts. Portraying an event through the eyes of a person who lived it can help readers imagine what they themselves might do — and the choices they might make — under similar circumstances. I also used short chapters to support the high-stakes action of the story and keep the pages turning.
3. Did the information about the Indigenous perspective on how disease is spread surface during your research, or were you aware of it going in?
AC: I was aware of how the Indigenous perspective informed the 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak investigation before I began researching the project. That’s why I opened the book with the story. Native Americans there had observed for many years that rainy seasons were connected to rising mouse populations and that a sickness (later discovered to be hantavirus) followed. They correctly deduced that it was transmitted by the mice and took precautions to limit contact with rodents. Their lived experience helped them recognize connections between climate changes and a deadly disease outbreak.
It was also important to highlight how pandemics impact historically marginalized groups. Diné (Navajo) communities were denigrated and disrespected during the hantavirus outbreak. Decades later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Native American populations suffered disproportionately high coronavirus rates in the U.S. Despite huge leaps in public health science, there is much more to be done to protect historically marginalized communities during outbreaks and pandemics.
4. What stories did you have to leave out and/or was there anything you learned that you wish you could forget about diseases?
AC: I originally planned to include the story of a fatal Ebola virus outbreak in monkeys that were housed within a suburban veterinary quarantine station just outside of Washington, DC. It was a riveting account that featured two army doctors transporting a couple of plastic-wrapped monkey cadavers in the trunk of their car. As they drove the animals from Virginia to Maryland for testing, they feared the monkeys were infected with an Ebola strain that, left unchecked, could ignite an outbreak of the virus near the heart of the nation’s capital. Tests eventually revealed that the quarantine station outbreak was not the Ebola strain deadly to humans. Given that the crisis was contained and posed no threat to the general public, I did not include it.
I was terrified by every account I read of diseases and how they have devastated populations throughout history. But I take nothing for granted when it comes to public health now. Too many dedicated people have devoted their lives and careers to the defense of public health for me to turn my back on so much life-saving, world-changing knowledge. I wanted young readers to understand why all of us owe public health professionals an immense debt of gratitude.
5. Why is studying disease especially important now?
AC: The uncomfortable truth is that pandemics are part of the human experience. Another global outbreak will occur. Will it be an avian influenza virus like H5N1, first detected in poultry but now infecting cattle and humans? Scientists remain vigilant. If H5N1 evolves to become easily transmissible between people, it could spark a flu pandemic. It’s also possible that the next global outbreak will come in the form of a new virus. Whatever the pathogen, we need more experts keeping watch. Prioritizing well-funded research by scientists who are beholden to data — not politicians — is essential to the protection of human life.
And yet, despite the abundance of historical evidence and rigorous peer-reviewed research supporting the essential role of proactive public health policy, our government is once again prioritizing political gain over the health of the American people. Politically motivated personnel cuts have reached the CDC in recent days. According to CBS News, the agency’s world-renowned squad of virus hunters, the Epidemic Intelligence Service, has been cut by half. Overall, one in ten CDC employees has been let go. Every American is imperiled by these losses.
When our government’s health agencies are hamstrung by politicians who disregard decades of proven scientific strategy that safeguard public health in the U.S. and around the world, it is up to all of us to help protect ourselves and each other. Public health citizenship is an essential tool in the fight against infectious disease. We are responsible to one another, and we are not helpless! We can all defend society by getting vaccines, wearing masks, and staying home when we are sick. These are time-tested, proven, and simple public health protections that have profound impacts on the welfare of our communities and help shield the most vulnerable among us.
We are safer, stronger, healthier when we stand together, and when we elect leaders who view public health as a national priority.
From the February 2025 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.
* Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike
by Amy Cherrix
Intermediate, Middle School Harper/HarperCollins 336 pp.
9/24 9780063069541 $19.99
e-book ed. 9780063069565 $9.99
Epidemiologists are scientists who study the causes, patterns, and control of diseases in groups of people. Positioning epidemiologists as forensic detectives, Cherrix examines six case studies that convey the scope and importance of their work. Opening with the appearance of a mysterious illness within the Navajo Nation in 1993, she shows how, through a series of breakthroughs, scientists were able to identify this illness as rodent-borne hantavirus. (As Cherrix points out, it was widely known in Indigenous communities that the mice carried disease; this was simply a confirmation of Native knowledge.) Cherrix then revisits a nineteenth-century London outbreak of cholera; the decades-long hunt for the virus that caused the influenza pandemic of 1918; the creativity and cooperation that led to the global eradication of smallpox; the medical activism of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout these riveting profiles, we learn how health and science professionals cooperate, collaborate, and corroborate to develop increasingly effective vaccines; we also learn about the contributions of historically marginalized communities in these efforts. Dr. Anthony Fauci plays a leading role in both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 overviews, allowing readers who might only have heard of his COVID pandemic work to see him in a different context. Occasional sidebars and captioned photographs complement the text, while an extensive bibliography, comprehensive source notes, and an index (unseen) are appended. JONATHAN HUNT
* indicates a book that the editors believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Hunt, Jonathan. "Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 101, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2025, pp. 99+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A822951919/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=210068e3. Accessed 21 Mar. 2025.
Cherrix, Amy VIRUS HUNTERS Harper/HarperCollins (Children's None) $19.99 9, 10 ISBN: 9780063069541
Explains how scientists study--and learn how to predict and counter--disease outbreaks.
In six parts, Cherrix frames six different outbreaks as compelling mysteries to be solved. "The Case of the No-Name Virus" takes readers to the U.S. Southwest of the 1990s, where observations by dendrochronologists who learned from A:shiwi people and medical data from the Korean War enable an "elite corps of epidemiologists at the CDC" to crack the case and prevent further spread of the hantavirus. Next, readers travel back to the filthy London of the mid-1800s to follow John Snow as he tracks a cholera outbreak to its source, pioneering techniques that are still used today. After giving historical background on the 1918 flu, the text follows scientists over many subsequent decades as they try to learn enough about the outbreak to prevent such a pandemic from happening again. The next section covers the globally coordinated effort (by both scientists and laypeople) to defeat the "ancient enemy" smallpox. Community involvement takes center stage in the documentation of the role activists played in raising awareness and even shaping drug trials during the HIV/AIDS outbreak of the 1980s and '90s. The final section chronicles how the unprecedentedly fast development of the Covid-19 vaccine came about thanks to years of earlier work. The straightforward language (including impressive scientific explanations) and human-focused narrative structure make for a readable book, bolstered by sidebars and extensive backmatter for credibility.
Optimistic, informative, and inspiring for future scientists. (bibliography, endnotes, index)(Nonfiction. 10-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Cherrix, Amy: VIRUS HUNTERS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804504588/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c0687608. Accessed 21 Mar. 2025.