Review Detail

Following his dream at the age of seventeen, our Masked Hero Lien-teh travels to England alone to study medicine. After spending time researching and learning, his adventure takes him back to China, where he leads a medical college. But in 1910, a new disease hits the streets and Lien-teh is enlisted to try to stop it. He creates a mask using household items like gauze and encourages everyone to wear them to protect themselves. During this time, not everyone agrees with masks and some people make fun of Lien-teh. But even today we know how important his work was.

MASKED HERO takes us back when masks were invented and how big of a part they still play in saving lives today, like with COVID 19. The illustrations are simple with a softer theme. In the back of the book, there's a time line and a note from Dr. Shan Woo Liu who is our hero Lien-teh's great-granddaughter. She wanted to share the stories she grew up hearing and to share an Asian hero with the world to try to help curve prejudices.


Final Verdict: I would recommend this to fans of history and healthcare. It's interesting seeing where the mask originated and that the inventor initially received insults for it. The mask saves lives in certain situations and it's crazy to think Lien-teh was made fun of for this vital invention.