THE SICK BOOK

After the upper case announcement that ""MOST OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN TO YOU WHEN YOU'RE SICK ARE GOOD FOR YOU,"" Winn sets out to explain, at an elementary level and in skimmable question-and-answer format, the ""colds and sore throats and stomach aches and other ordinary things that happen to almost everybody once in a while."" To avoid getting bogged down in background, Winn puts basic information on the body's organs and systems at the end, with marginal symbols (bone, drop of blood, etc.) scattered through the text to indicate where, in the last chapter, relevant ""further information"" can be found. This arrangement is the most complicated thing about the book, whose questions run to such simple matters as why vomit tastes so terrible, how coughing works, why all your blood doesn't run out when you get a cut, and how you catch the mumps. With a thick coat of artificial flavor (""germs don't really have anything bad in mind""), it's designed and illustrated--with animal patients--to go down without resistance.