INVISIBLE ALLIES

MICROBES THAT SHAPE OUR LIVES

by Jeanette Farrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2004

As a companion piece for her newly revised edition of Invisible Enemies: Stories of Infectious Disease (ISBN: 0-374-33607-5. $18.00), Farrell offers a look at the Good Guys: Yeasts and bacteria that create bread, cheese, chocolate and other necessities, that work with and within our digestive system, and that play central roles in the natural cycle of decomposition. She charges up her information (distilled largely from technical sources) with memorable insights—"There is no food we eat that a microbe does not desire"—plus interviews with a collector of sourdough starters worldwide, a scientist who has raised more than 100 generations of germ-free rats for experimental purposes, and a biochemist at a waste-treatment plant, among others. Illustrated with a scanty but effective array of images, from microphotos to old advertisements, this page-turner will persuade young readers, if not to love the microbes in which we are all more or less immersed, at least to appreciate them. (endnotes, bibliographies) (Nonfiction. 10-13)

Pub Date: April 12, 2004

ISBN: 0-374-33608-3

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005

Categories: CHILDREN'S