Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and nonfiction books that children love to read. Leveled for guided and independent reading, each book includes ideas to support reading. Teaching and assessment support, as well as eBooks, are also available. Do you picture women who made potions in the "olden days" as witches on broomsticks? Think again. They were the first doctors in British history--yet they have vanished from the history books. This story begins almost one thousand years ago. Women have always been healers, experimenting with cures and working in medicine even when they were locked out of education, banned from their trade, and blamed for the illnesses they were trying to cure.

This book is about all of these women: the skilled women who were pushed out, and the women who fought back. Adapted from her bestselling, critically acclaimed series Normal Women , join multi-award-winning author Philippa Gregory as she explores the long history of women's expertise in healing and medicine--from the Black Death and witchcraft trials to wartime work and Covid vaccines. Diamond/Band 17 books offer more complex, underlying themes that give children opportunities to understand causes and different points of view. Pages 54 and 55 allow children to revisit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development, and recall. Ideas for reading at the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities. Normal women make history.