This chapter book for young readers is part of the “She Persisted” series produced by a sisterhood of writers in partner with Chelsea Clinton.

Virginia Apgar was born in 1909 in New Jersey. Today she is remembered for her development of the Apgar Score in 1952, a system to determine whether a newborn infant needs special attention to stay alive.

This book gives the details of Virginia’s life, and her struggles to fund her education as a doctor. She was one of only nine woman medical students at New York’s Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating near the top of her class in 1933. She later became the first woman to hold a full professorship there. For a variety of reasons including sexism, she eventually specialized in obstetrical anesthesiology, treating mothers delivering babies.

At the time she began to practice, many newborns got sick and died within a day of being born. There were no standards to evaluate the health of babies before they were discharged from the hospital. She came up with the idea for five criteria by which doctors should evaluate newborns, and published it in 1953. The evaluation was to be one at one and five miutes after birth. It is still used today.

But the book tells us that Apgar was also known for making her own musical instruments, obtaining a degree in statistics, and working with the March of Dimes to help improve detection and prevention of birth defects. At age fifty-nine, she began taking flying lessons.

She died at age 65, after inspiring many women to pursue careers in medicine.

The author concludes:

“And to this day, whenever a baby is born in a hospital in this country - and in other countries around the world - at one minute and five minutes after they’re born, they are given the Apgar score so doctors can make sure they’re healthy. . . . All babies who have been given the Apgar score are lucky that Dr. Apgar persisted - talking quickly, thinking quickly and chasing her reams no matter what.”

Apgar received many honorary doctorate degrees. In 1973, she became the first woman to receive the Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. In 1994 Apgar was pictured on a U.S. postage stamp as part of the Great Americans series.

The book includes intermittent illustrations by Gillian Flint. ( )