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Community Feelings
Nurse Florence, What Do Hormones Control? introduces children to the powerful world of hormones through an engaging, beautifully illustrated conversation that makes complex biology clear, friendly, and fun. What inspired you to frame the science of hormones as a casual conversation in a school lunchroom?
When I started the series, the first book’s setting was in the nurse’s office. I thought about where else a school nurse could interact with kids and decided the lunch room was appropriate, as well as the school classroom. I know it seems a little strange for elementary kids to approach the school nurse at lunch, but I want nurses to appear approachable and trusted.
How did you decide which hormonal functions were most important, and most age-appropriate, to feature for young readers?
The source document I used from the Cleveland Clinic highlighted the hormones I discussed in the book.
Were there any scientific concepts you found especially challenging to simplify without oversimplifying?
The chemical structures of amino acids. I choose to just leave drawings of all the structures and let it be left for another book to go into detail about the structure of molecules.
What do you hope children (and the adults reading with them) will feel or understand differently after finishing this book?
I hope kids, parents, and grandparents, as well as aunts and uncles, will feel empowered as they read these books together. I hope to help bring community feelings back to our community.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Essay Contest | YouTube | Dow Creative Enterprises® | Nurse Florence Project | LinkedIn | Amazon
The Shift Worker’s Paradox
R.E. Hengsterman’s The Shift Worker’s Paradox lays out a clear and unsettling picture of how shift work breaks down human biology, piece by piece. The book moves through personal stories, science, and practical guidance, weaving together research on circadian disruption, metabolism, hormones, and the daily realities of working against the clock. It explains how sleep loss, mistimed eating, and chronic stress grind away at the body over time. The tone blends clinical insight with lived experience, and the message is steady and stark. Working nights or rotating shifts has a cost, and that cost shows up everywhere from cognitive performance to metabolic health to emotional stability.
The writing is plainspoken, almost blunt at times, and that worked for me. I never felt lectured at. Instead, I felt nudged, reminded, and sometimes warned. The book mixes biology with stories of real people in a way that hits harder than any abstract health advice. I could feel the frustration in the author’s voice when describing tragedies on the drive home, and I could feel the weight of his decades in healthcare shaping every paragraph. Some chapters made me pause, especially the parts explaining how the body’s internal clocks fall out of sync. I knew shift work was rough, but I didn’t fully grasp how many systems it drags down at once.
What surprised me most was how personal the book becomes. When the author admits to his own struggles, the tone shifts from educational to intimate. It felt like someone pulling up a chair and telling the truth that usually gets swallowed in break rooms and morning commutes. The mix of scientific detail and emotional honesty felt unique. Shift workers aren’t dealing with one problem. They’re dealing with an entire stack of them, and the writing mirrors that tangled reality. I found myself moved, sometimes unsettled, and sometimes hopeful when the author talked about small changes that can help realign a life that’s drifting.
This book is a lifeline for nurses, factory workers, first responders, warehouse workers, and anyone else who trades daylight for survival. It’s also helpful for families who want to understand what their loved ones go through. I would recommend it to anyone who works outside a typical schedule or cares for someone who does. The book is honest, practical, and quietly compassionate, and it might be the first time some readers feel truly seen.
Pages: 394 | ASIN : B0G2SK9QDM
