Your Body Battles a Broken Bone

CRRAACK! Breaking a bone hurts! But did you know that it's the start of a battle for your body to heal itself? That ache happens because damaged nerve cells send out a cry for help. In response, red blood cells rush in to bring oxygen and nutrients. White blood cells clean up the dead bone and muscle cells. Blood also brings fibroblast cells. They build a sort of scaffolding around the break so that new bone will fill in. And stem cells arrive to transform themselves into cells that will make brand-new bone. The whole area becomes an active construction site as your body battles the damage and heals itself. Get a close look at this body battle with comic illustrations and ground-breaking photomicrographs. The photomicrographs magnify the actual cellular processes tens of thousands of times, offering you a front-row seat for all the action.

Vicki Cobb is a well-known author of more than eighty-five highly entertaining nonfiction books for children. Cobb's lighthearted approach to hands-on science has become her trademark for getting kids involved in experiences that create real learning. Cobb also writes a weekly column, Show-Biz Science, for EducationalWorld.com. Her picture book I Face the Wind was a 2004 Sibert Honor book. Her latest Lerner series is Where's the Science Here?

Andrew N. Harris holds an Associates Degree from the Art Center of College and Design as well as a BFA in Illustration and Graphic Design from Brigham Young University-Idaho. He is the illustrator of 20 Hungry Piggies, a Fall 07 Millbrook picture book.

Dennis Kunkel is an award-winning photomicrographer whose images appear worldwide in print, film, and electronic media. Considered one of the world's experts on the topic, he is the author of more than 50 research papers on microscopy. Formerly of the University of Hawaii and the University of Seattle, he has left academia to devote full time to the development of photomicrographs. His latest book, co-authored with Alexandra Siy, is Mosquito Bite.