The Muscular System (Early Bird Body Systems)

Discusses the function of the muscular system and how it works, and explains how to keep muscles healthy and functioning properly.

Reviewed with Conrad J. Storad's The Circulatory System.

Gr. 2-4. There's no shortage of books about the body, but these entries in the Early Bird--Body Systems series introduce the topics to a slightly younger audience than is usual. Storad's is the less successful. Though he competently describes the heart, vessels, and blood, and explains how blood flows through the body, oversimplifications ("Food goes into the blood each time we eat and drink") are likely to confuse readers. Johnson's introduction is clearer as well as more kid-friendly, thanks to her use of the pronoun you and inclusion of simple activities to make things easier to remember as well as more immediate. Photos and diagrams in both books are plentiful (there are several pictures of a heart in The Circulatory System). Captions unfortunately tend to reiterate rather than extend the text. A word list beginning each book alerts kids to subject-specific terms, which are defined in the text as well as in a glossary. A few book and Web resources and a note to adults who work with young readers are appended. An uneven series, but worth investigating further. Stephanie Zvirin
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