The Human Body: An Amazing Inside Look at You!

This entertaining introduction to the everyday workings of the human body will captivate young readers as it explains in clear, accessible terms just what makes us all tick--and run, play, speak, cough, learn, and eat. Ideal as a family resource, The Human Body also makes an invaluable classroom reference. 240 color photos.

but How does it work? Two books help encourage curiosity about the world around kids?and inside them, too. What Happens When...? by John Farndon, illus. by Steve Fricker and Mike Harnden, explains how Internet messages travel, how weather forecasters predict the weather and how flowers get to florists. Copious illustrations show the often elaborate chain of events behind everyday activities like flipping on a light switch or having a pizza delivered. While it's eerie to see what a girl's face looks like with half her skin removed, it's also quite informative. For The Human Body: An Amazing Inside Look at You! by Steve Parker, computers are used to combine photographs of real kids' bodies with anatomical models of skeletons, muscles and internal organs. Some of the roughly 240 photographs are taken with microscopes, and models of organs help provide an even more detailed inside view. The text explains not only how the body uses energy from food and defends itself from disease but, more specifically, how a hand grips a pen and a larynx makes sound.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The overseas origins of this volume, subtitled An Amazing Inside Look at You!, are apparent only in a few subtle details of language and illustration. The linguistically straightforward but conceptually sophisticated text covers basic morphology, the musculoskeletal system, metabolism, homeostatic mechanisms, the senses, nervous and endocrine systems, and reproduction (coitus and parturition are described briefly and clinically, but not illustrated; five contraceptive methods are mentioned, but their relative effectiveness is not evaluated). Basic biological concepts such as taxonomic and structural (cell-tissue-organ-system- organism) hierarchies are emphasized throughout. The information is organized functionally (covering topics such as ``movement'' and ``communication and control''), providing greater integration of the material than the more common structurally-oriented discussion of organ systems. Embedded cross-references link different sections when necessary. Also impressive are the many explanations of physiological processes at the molecular level, and the computer- generated graphics, which combine full-color photographs of children with photos of anatomical models in such a way that readers have the startling impression of looking under the skin of a real person. Despite some minor errors and inconsistencies of notation and spelling, this volume from Parker (Shocking Science, p. 605, etc.) has a place even in collections owning other popular ``body'' books; the pictures in the Visual Dictionary of the Human Body (1991) are more detailed, more numerous, and larger, but its text is not nearly as comprehensive or well-integrated as Parker's. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.