HUMAN BODY

A lift-the-flap book explores the human body.

Enclosed in a regular binding rather than the usual cardboard covers of a toddler’s novelty book and featuring 70 lifting flaps, bright colors, cartoonlike illustrations, and a Q-and-A format, this effort offers accurate but very simple information on anatomy and physiology. A typical flap asks, “What pumps blood around my body?” The answer is under the flap: “Your heart. Your heart pumps the blood that moves around your body.” Other questions are posed in small sidebars with the answers immediately following, sans flaps. Sometimes answers are so brief as to be pointless, while others are confusing. “What does this pair of bean-shaped organs do?” is answered with, “These are your two kidneys….” Another text box is only slightly more enlightening: “Your pee—or urine—travels from your kidneys into your bladder.” A confusing cross section of the heart is filled with arrows pointing in various directions—supposedly showing the flow of blood—and includes a numbered series of steps with no corresponding numbers on the seemingly two-chambered heart (the unlabeled valves between atria and ventricles being depicted as comma-shaped lines). There is no backmatter. The reading level might match well with the middle grades, the level of complexity with early elementary, and the format with even younger children. Companion title Farm publishes simultaneously.

A basic study of the human body for an uncertain audience.