Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris

Dead Ends!

Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels

Lindsey Fitzharris, Adrian Teal

Bloomsbury · Print & ebook · October 14, 2025

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year | A Chicago Public Library Best Kids' Book of the Year | A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year From New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about medicine's most fascinating failures and dead ends.

Buy on Amazon

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
Young readers curious about medical history and scientific mistakes.
Themes
Medical history, Failed treatments and discoveries, Learning from failure
Pacing
Fast

About this book

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year | A Chicago Public Library Best Kids' Book of the Year | A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year From New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about medicine's most fascinating failures and dead ends. Beheadings! Bloodletting! Bodysnatching! Journey down a snaking road bristling with medicine's most astonishing “dead ends.”

Continue reading

Marvel at the diagnoses, experiments, and treatments that were frequently useless, and often harmful, but that sometimes led doctors to discoveries that changed the world for the better. Enjoy a whirlwind tour of the human body-from brain, to heart, to limbs-during which New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris and caricaturist Adrian Teal will guide you through centuries of medical mistakes, festooned with riveting facts, pitch-perfect humor, and vivid illustrations. Celebrate the flukes, flops, and failures that have given science a better understanding of our bodies and ways to treat them. This fascinating book of foul-ups is sure to delight young readers, and inspire them to embrace their failures, too!

Who it’s for

  • Young readers curious about medical history and scientific mistakes.
  • Middle grade readers who enjoy humorous, illustrated nonfiction.

Where it sits

Illness & Injury81%
History of Science61%
Human Body54%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Illness & Injury
  • Science & Nature
  • History of Science
Authors
Lindsey Fitzharris, Adrian Teal
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Published
October 14, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Medical history · Failed treatments and discoveries · Learning from failure
Reading lane
Illness & Injury