Anatomy & Physiology

The Body Book

Name: The Body Book
Author: Sara Stein
ISBN: 9780894808050

by Sara Stein

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Overview

A JOURNEY DEEP INTO THE MIND. AND THE STOMACH, THE KIDNEYS, THE MUSCLES, THE HEART . . .

You walk, you breathe, you talk, you think. You are the most complex and intelligent organism on the planet. But how does this organism work? And how did you arise from one unique cell? Sara Stein is an award-winning science writer whose research is impeccable and whose writing is gifted. In THE BODY BOOK-crammed with facts, statistics, explanations, and connections-she tells the incredible story of your body.

YOUR BODY INSIDE

· DNA, chromosomes, and genes.

· How one sandwich can feed 40 trillion cells.

· The biggest brain in the world (and thoughts that travel 250 miles per hour).

· Your body's defenses.

· Tonsils, the appendix, and the remnants of a tail.

· How the little bits of iron that color your blood red also flowed through the veins of the dinosaurs.

AND OUT

· How you see, hear, taste, touch, smell.

· The sixth sense

· Your gorilla-hairy body

· Sweat, oil, milk, and tears (which actually "wash away" sadness).

· The skin: the body's largest organ.

· Tans, burns, freckles, and the one gram of pigment difference between blacks and whites

· How you grow into your face

"Sara Stein explains things in ways that kids can relate to and turns science into an adventure," writes the Los Angeles Times. Author of the highly acclaimed The Science Book and award-winning Evolution Book, Sara Stein is the mother of four sons and lives with her husband in New York.

Facts and explanations about the various body systems, plus information on vaccines, tears, and many other relevant topics.

About the Author, Sara Stein

In addition to The Evolution Book, Sara Stein is the author of The Body Book and The Science Book. Together, her books have over 345,000 copies in print.

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Editorials

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

Ms. Stein's straightforward "owner's manual" answers just about any questions inquisitive middle-schoolers might have on our outer and inner physiological selves, including how we grow from single cell to adulthood, how we reproduce, and our bodies are in a state of constant self-maintenance.

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-- More than most readers ever wanted to know about certain aspects of the human body explored in a random sequence. The text begins with a section called ``Stuff,'' where the first chapter, ``Taking Shape,'' offers 19 pages on the sequence of events from conception to birth. One hundred and fifty pages later, in the ``Guts'' section, ``The Inside Sea'' chapter includes information on the reproductive system. Menstruation, however, appears in the ``Organic Government'' chapter of the ``Senses'' section. ``Stuff'' also includes ``All-weather Outerwear,'' which discusses the skin, hair, warts, zits, ``the scent of sex,'' and ``budding out,'' which is breast development. Here, Stein says that milk glands gradually grow as breasts develop, but that ``pouches'' that produce the milk don't grow until pregnancy. Yet back in ``Taking Shape,'' she states that the placenta secretes ``hormones that grow the milk glands in the mother's breasts.'' Rounding out ``Stuff'' are ``Body Building,'' which covers skin and bones, and ``Flesh and Fat,'' which discusses bones, muscles and dieting. ``Guts,'' encompasses digestion and elimination, with chapters entitled ``Puke,'' ``Pushin' on Out,'' and other equally descriptive titles. Finally, the section called ``Senses'' is an umbrella for explanations of senses, hormones, the immune system, and the nervous system. Fortunately, there is an extensive index as well as a brief glossary. There is a lot of useful information here, accompanied by some good black-and-white photos and diagrams. However, in view of the confusion and inaccuracies, it might be best to look elsewhere for solid information. --Denise L. Moll, Lone Pine Elementary School, West Bloomfield, MI