MEDICAL MARVELS

In this compact assortment of reports on high-interest (for some) topics, Stanley invites readers to meet the Elephant Man and Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy, to speculate on the pasts and futures of the “Monkey Boy of Uganda” and other feral children, to marvel over various brain injuries and disorders and to get squicked out from learning about the effects of Ebola (“It was soon discovered that the man’s internal organs had turned to liquid”) and other “Virulent Viruses.” The brain chapter is perhaps the least sensational and includes a brief profile of Oliver Sacks alongside mini-articles on phrenology, schizophrenia and lucid dreaming (and Phineas Gage and lobotomies—“least sensational” does not mean “unsensational”). Cochran’s full-page flights of fancy are oddly static, but along with the many pull quotes, boxed asides and black-and-white photos at least provide visual variety. Though this closes with distinctly anticlimactic “Medical Marvels Can Happen to You!” entries on yawning, sneezing and “brain freeze,” overall it’s well designed to attract children who are unenthusiastic readers. (notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)