I Have a Weird Brother Who Digested a Fly

Children's Literature - Karen Leggett

This is the story of a young boy--the young storyteller's weird brother - who swallowed a fly on a dare from his sister. The story is told in verse with paragraphs on each page describing the actual human digestive system. The descriptions are thorough but simple--"your throat squeezes together when you swallow. It pushes the food down into a tube called the esophagus." Cartoon illustrations clarify the point, showing the esophagus like a tube of toothpaste being squeezed. While Joan Holub has provided a humorous vehicle to convey important biological concepts, teachers should beware. Half the class is likely to consider the notion of swallowing a fly "gross," while the other half will take advantage of the comment that a big burp at the end of a meal is encouraged in some countries as a sign the food was good.

Library Journal

K-Gr 3-Holub's creative story takes readers on a whimsical tour of the digestive process. In lighthearted rhyme, a girl relates how a fly travels through her brother from ingestion to elimination. "The fly wiggle-woggled/ around in his mouth,/bumping his teeth/before moving south." Sidebars, cartoons, and additional text explain the organs and steps of the digestive system in easy-to-understand language with simple analogies. The illustrations, rendered in ink, markers, gouache, and colored pencil, burst with bright colors and backgrounds. Children will chuckle over the toilet-bowl scene and the unfortunate fly sinking in gastric juices. Holub serves two pages of additional information including sections on "Should I Eat a Fly?," "The Food Pyramid," and "Funny Noises." This is the type of book that gathers no shelf dust.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.