Out of Control: Brain Function and Immune Reactions

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-These slim titles are packed with more information, textually and visually, than most books twice their size. All look at various changes within the human body. In Crash, David and Laura are nearly killed in a car accident-he is unconscious and she has a ruptured spleen-and readers are right in the ER and OR and inside their bodies as doctors fight to save their lives. In Out of Control, readers meet Robert before, during, and for a few months after his birth as his brain, which enables him to survive with instinctual reactions, grows as he learns. In the second section, a British young woman on vacation in Florida is stung by an American wasp and has a serious allergic reaction, and readers see how her immune system fights back. Spreading Menace includes stories about Mike, who has a salmonella attack, and George, whose physical and emotional reactions to hunger cravings are causing weight problems. In Teen Dreams, which won't spend a moment on the shelves, classmates Darren and Natalie experience puberty and all of the physical changes it brings. These attractive volumes are bubbling over with informative, full-color photographs taken inside and outside the bodies in question, tracing each process step by step as it occurs at every level-from the cell to the whole person. The texts are amazingly concise and take extraordinarily complex processes and make them clearly understandable to the intended audience, without ever becoming prurient or disgusting, which could easily have occurred. Created by Discovery Communications, these books will be a boon to a wide audience.-Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.