(3) 4-6 What makes this book about puberty stand out is its inclusiveness. For example, Carnagey refers to changes that typically occur in those whose bodies "produce higher levels of estrogen and progesterone" and those who have "higher testosterone levels." The book defines gender and sex in clear language. Masturbation is also handled with sensitivity, and readers are encouraged to discuss these topics with a “trusted adult.” Additionally, the book covers how to deal with gossip and bullying. Frequent spot art, by Brianna Gilmartin, is included throughout. Back matter contains additional resources, a glossary, and a source list.

Reviewer: Marva Anne Hinton

(2) K-3 Number Tours for Curious Kids series. Illustrated by Dawn DeVries Sokol. Berne's counts and measures of the cells and organs of the human body illustrate just how remarkable -- and quantifiable -- we are. "Did you know" that we are composed of "30 trillion cells," eight thousand taste buds, and "60,000 miles" of blood vessels? Or that "15 million cells in your body were replaced by new ones in the time it took you to read this sentence"? Numerous other facts about our sensory organs and digestive, skeletal, respiratory, and circulatory systems are equally impressive. The organized layouts include diagrammatic illustrations that effectively portray each system, often within a child-size human body outline, accompanied by text on scraps of lined notebook paper that appear taped onto the pages. The end notes should not be skipped, as they include noteworthy details about the various systems, additional number facts, and an important statement about the degree of certainty of some of the numbers. An interactive section at the very end of the book encourages readers to measure their own bodies and to calculate the volume of their blood, their heart rate, and number of bones in their hands.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(1) YA Epidemiologists are scientists who study the causes, patterns, and control of diseases in groups of people. Positioning epidemiologists as forensic detectives, Cherrix examines six case studies that convey the scope and importance of their work. Opening with the appearance of a mysterious illness within the Navajo Nation in 1993, she shows how, through a series of breakthroughs, scientists were able to identify this illness as rodent-borne hantavirus. (As Cherrix points out, it was widely known in Indigenous communities that the mice carried disease; this was simply a confirmation of Native knowledge.) Cherrix then revisits a nineteenth-century London outbreak of cholera; the decades-long hunt for the virus that caused the influenza pandemic of 1918; the creativity and cooperation that led to the global eradication of smallpox; the medical activism of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout these riveting profiles, we learn how health and science professionals cooperate, collaborate, and corroborate to develop increasingly effective vaccines; we also learn about the contributions of historically marginalized communities in these efforts. Dr. Anthony Fauci plays a leading role in both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 overviews, allowing readers who might only have heard of his COVID pandemic work to see him in a different context. Occasional sidebars and captioned photographs complement the text, while an extensive bibliography, comprehensive source notes, and an index (unseen) are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kim Siew. Perfect for inquisitive minds, this fun and fascinating picture book unravels the workings of the human brain. Dabscheck, a pediatric neurologist, breaks down complex neurological functions into simple, digestible details, covering topics including brain size, senses, and "fun facts," such as octopuses having brains in their arms. Quirky digital illustrations in a minimalist palette enliven the exploration. A glossary adds further accessibility and interest. An engaging, informative look at our most vital and complex organ.

Reviewer: Summer Edward

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Nik Henderson. During the Industrial Revolution, vast numbers of workers moved to cities that housed the new factories. These laborers lived in crowded and often squalid conditions, in areas where the air was thick with noxious odors. One such place was London's Broad Street, overtaken by a cholera outbreak in 1854. Although the accepted thinking of the time was that such illnesses were transmitted through "bad, smelly air," Dr. John Snow (1813–1858) does not buy that explanation. He asks questions: why are some individuals sick and others free from disease? How could the air cause diarrhea and vomiting? He investigates by visiting homes of the victims, asking pertinent questions, and creating a map of the affected areas; he then theorizes that cholera must come from something ingested. But what? Here readers see the scientific method at work as Snow determines it is the water, notoriously contaminated by human waste, that causes cholera. Modern epidemiology is born. Henderson's mixed-media illustrations, in shades of brown, depict the thick, noxious air of Broad Street but lighten as Snow finds evidential proof for his theory. Besides highlighting a historical moment in time, Hopkinson deftly presents a nondidactic object lesson about evaluating information, showing the value of making decisions with facts rather than unverified opinions. The back matter includes information about the Broad Street pump (where cholera victims got their water) and Snow; a glossary of other infectious diseases; and resources for further inquiry.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) K-3 Living through a global pandemic has brought epidemiological thinking to the forefront of pop-science. Those who would like to learn about diseases (mostly) defeated by scientific discovery will be fascinated by this volume, which investigates the history of six deadly diseases that caused human suffering for centuries. Despite the serious subject matter, the book's tone, enhanced by the spot illustrations, is light, allowing readers to delve into the most harrowing descriptions of pain and suffering with enough distance to be more fascinated than horrified. Each chapter focuses on one disease and is preceded by a world map showing the plague's long reach. Sidebars throughout the main text provide anecdotes about the illness and the individuals who in one way or another contributed to our understanding of it. Each chapter ends with a section spotlighting some of the more famous victims of the disease. Endnotes include an extensive list of sources organized by chapter as well as a detailed index and "further reading for future medical historians," making this book well-suited for student research. Fans of Albee's Poison will feel right at home with this darkly comedic piece of nonfiction.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Kathleen Marcotte. “A vaccine is like a memory of a disease you never had, so you and others won’t get sick!” LaRocca describes the ways in which germs, including COVID-19, cause infections, the varieties of illnesses humans have had historically and today, and the role of vaccines in preventing some infections from ever occurring. The language is, for the most part, child-friendly, and the explanations connect well to experiences and terms that will be familiar from the COVID era (e.g., herd immunity, epidemic, inoculation). The illustrations of doctors, scientists, and families working together to keep their communities healthy are also reassuring. Some of the choices in presenting concepts, however, such as in a sequence describing how vaccines work in the body, and in the section explaining COVID’s impact on society, simplify concepts, such as the immune system and the conditions needed to reopen schools, that are more complicated than as presented. Helpful endnotes aimed at adults provide additional information about the types of vaccines in use today and the microbes that they target.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(2) PS From the moment readers open this book, they are treated to an album of beautiful, joyous children, all with one salient feature: "Everybody has a body." But not every body is the same. There's a youngster using a rollator who says, "I like to take a walk." There are two bespectacled kids, one of whom shares the information that "glasses make me see better." Other differences, such as one child who has "to get checkups for my heart," are not apparent from the photos but are nonetheless noted in accompanying text. This photo-essay shows children participating in a range of activities, including rock wall climbing, swimming, and reading. The message--"Even though we're the same in many ways, we're different in our own ways too. Let's be kind to everybody and every kind of body!"--has been expressed before, but rarely through such memorable images. Brief sketches of three of the children with disabilities as well as one adult advocate and a glossary of physical and learning differences complete the book.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(1) K-3 Chin follows his acclaimed Your Place in the Universe (rev. 11/20) with an equally stellar exploration of the tiniest components of matter conceptualized by science. The book opens with a brown-skinned child who uses a wheelchair visiting a Southwestern desert. The United States' smallest bird, butterfly, and bee, in turn, alight on her finger, in close-ups that ultimately zoom in to a hair on that finger and put in motion a journey inward to the "building blocks" of biology and physical science. The expedition moves from skin cells to molecules, then to atoms, protons, and elementary particles. Each page-turn, ending in suspenseful sentence breaks ("But the cell nucleus is gigantic compared to... / ...everything else inside the cell"), takes readers to the next step inward. Chin's stunning watercolor and gouache illustrations, colorfully detailed and scientifically accurate, employ perspective to draw readers into observations of life and matter within the smallest possible spaces. The back matter adds details to the text's brief definitions and delineates where the art departs from settled science (in color and spatial relationships). The main text ends philosophically: we are all made of "the same stuff as everything else in the universe," and yet each of us is a "singular person, who can think and feel and discover... / ...the universe within."

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Isabel Greenberg. Colorful, squiggly germs with alarmed cartoon faces swirl all around the three curious children at the center of this useful and entertaining book by the team behind A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars (rev. 1/18) and Power Up (rev. 3/19). In Fishman's funny, conversational text, a scientist explains to the children that many of the rules they hear from grownups ("Cover your mouth when you cough"; "Don't eat off the floor") help keep them safe. The scientist goes on to define germs as microbes and identify the different kinds (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi, helminths); show where they can be found inside and outside the human body; and explain what we can do to protect ourselves from illness. Both the bright, cheerful drawings and the author's note encourage children to see germs as a natural part of our world. The chatty, sometimes silly text plays off Greenberg's lively illustrations, which are full of movement and details to pore over. The text mentions the role of vaccines as a line of defense, and COVID-19 is explicitly discussed in the author's note. A nonthreatening and informative introduction to a topic about which children may have many questions and concerns today.

Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) K-3 Science Buddies: 30-Minute Makers series. Illustrated by Mike Ciccotello. A friendly rhinovirus virion (a single "virus particle") narrates this accessible and timely introduction to viruses, our immune system, and the benefits of vaccines. From an infected person's sneeze to a new host's nose to what happens on a cellular level, our blue-and-green guide delves into virology while keeping a young audience in mind. Both the lively text and the cartoon illustrations temper the science with a spoonful of entertainment ("Lots of us fly in droplets of snot"). After invading a nasal cell, the virion explains, "I shrug off my spiky jacket so RNA can do its job. Off it goes to deliver its chemical code message to Cell: Make more of me. Lots more!" Next, white blood cells programmed to fight back against the quickly replicating virus arrive via the bloodstream. And how about the human host? "You now have a headache and a runny nose." Discussion about the role of antibodies leads to information about vaccines and how that development has helped eradicate the threat of heavy-hitters such as mumps, measles, and polio. A cameo by a COVID-19 virion brings the lesson home. Back matter includes information on how the first vaccine (for smallpox) was created, a guide to the different types of white blood cells, a helpful glossary, a three-book reading list, and a select bibliography. Gesundheit...now wash your hands!

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Shawna J. C. Tenney. The "I Don't Vant to Suck Your Blood" smoothie shop is a vegan establishment, but a thirsty vampire fails to notice (although viewers will, courtesy of the comical illustrations), and orders "a pint of your best blood..." The young (vampire) proprietor launches into an enthusiastic explanation of why blood is "too important to humans for us just to drink it," describing how it travels through the cardiovascular system and why. Meanwhile, the elder vampire grows increasingly desperate: "Vhen does it flow into my mouth?" As in McAnulty's Brains!: Not Just a Zombie Snack, accessible text and art balance lightly macabre humor with clear information, making the biology lesson easy to swallow. A "Dear Blood-Filled Reader" note, additional facts, and a source list are appended.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) 4-6 Big Ideas That Changed the World series. In this third installment of his Big Ideas That Changed the World comic-format series, Brown lays out the crucial steps in human history that led to the discovery and implementation of vaccinations as a solution to the spread of disease. Narrated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a key figure in the popularization of smallpox inoculations in the eighteenth century, the book provides readers with a history of the smallpox disease that decimated multiple continents over the course of human history and the various early inoculation methods attempted across the globe prior to Edward Jenner's discovery of a cowpox-derived vaccine. Brown then quickly moves on to Louis Pasteur and the new vaccinations resulting from his work, followed by Jonas Salk and his polio vaccine. Brown employs anthropomorphized cells and microorganisms for a section explaining the ways vaccines work to build our immune systems. A short section on COVID-19 concludes with a hope, "as of ­November 2020," for an effective vaccine. Brown's (The Unwanted, rev. 9/18; Fever Year, rev. 11/19) typical loose pen and watercolor illustrations, including single pages, double-page spreads, and varied panel layouts, make this well-researched ­volume--part history, part science--engagingly easy to read. A timeline, notes, a bibliography, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

(3) K-3 "Lanky bodies, squat bodies, / Tall, short, wide or narrow bodies, / Somewhere-in-the-middle bodies, / Bodies are cool!" Feder's rhyming text and double-page spreads filled with all kinds of people celebrate the variety of our physical attributes. The joy-filled cartoon illustrations pack a lot of bodies into the settings (e.g., subway car, pool, backyard barbecue) and offer plenty to consider. Each scene highlights one feature: physique, skin color, hair ("lots of hair or no hair"; "leg hair, armpit hair"), eyes ("monolids and round eyes"), tummies, legs ("roll-up-to-the-table legs"), scars ("marks-that-tell-a-story scars"), and more. The titular refrain keeps the book's message front and center.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Betty C. Tang. Brayden Harrington has techniques that help with his "bumpy speech," but public speaking still causes stress and embarrassment sometimes. When he meets Joe Biden at a presidential campaign event, Brayden is astonished when Biden tells him: "'When I was your age, I had bumpy speech, too.'" The encounter inspires both Brayden and the soon-to-be president, who invites the thirteen-year-old to (virtually) address the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Like Harrington's viral speech, his autobiographical account is sympathetic and moving, with cheery digital illustrations that emphasize feelings of hope. Appended with tips and other information on stuttering.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(2) K-3 Illustrated by David Catrow. This is a playful, simple look at our bodies' inner workings for young children. A blue-haired, brown-skinned child sits atop a pillow on the book's cover, gazing longingly at a large apple. "I want an apple," the text declares on the first page as the narrator lies with their feet up on an oversized chair. "Smart brain, help me find one." Searching for the desired fruit all around the house--including inside the depths of a worn-out boot and under the dog's floppy ear--the child instructs different body parts to do what they do best. "Sturdy feet, help me stand. Long legs, help me walk." Eventually, an apple is found and feasted upon--with each of the five senses experiencing delight. Catrow's (the Silly Dilly Songs books; Fun in the Sun, rev. 5/15) colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations, all full-bleed double-page spreads, are immediately recognizable with their eccentric details and exaggerated scale (the apple often appears the size of the child's head, for example). The spare text is just enough to introduce concepts of human anatomy to a preschool and early primary audience. The book's final page is an informational drawing of the child pointing out some of the organs used in the apple's journey through the body.

Reviewer: Hill Saxton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(3) K-3 This informative and accessible book begins by categorizing the four types of germs that make us sick: bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses. Levine introduces each group with general information followed by brief profiles of two or three specific organisms (e.g., E. coli, giardia, trichophyton, coronavirus). She then covers how germs infect us, the immune system's job, and how vaccines work. The well-designed pages feature color-enhanced micrographs that provide a look at this usually unseen world. Appended are a glossary, suggested reading and websites, and a list of "Germy Jobs."

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Matthew Rivera. A cheerful zombie narrator, who's trying to kick her brain-eating habit, introduces the features and functions of the human brain. Both the text and animated illustrations successfully walk the line between science--"Your brain is the boss, the coach..."--and silliness: "...the main computer--but tastier than a computer." Our ghoulish guide demonstrates how the five senses act as messengers (here they act as a zombie early-warning system). She compares the human brain's appearance and weight to various animal brains and gets a little more science-y in discussion of neurons, glial cells, and parts of the brain (e.g., brain stem, cerebellum, temporal lobe). An author's note, more brain facts, and list of sources are appended.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Jack Teagle. Fans of the authors' Wow in the World podcast will recognize their narrative enthusiasm and energy in this overview. Here they introduce different body systems (e.g., nervous and reproductive) and parts (eyes, skin, bones) with a good dose of humor. Each section is packed with trivia, history, physiology, world records (most stretchy skin, loudest burp), and other tidbits of knowledge. The cartoonlike illustrations incorporate comic panels, spot illustrations, and small photos in a busy but accessible design. A Mad Libs-style "Thank-You Letter to Your Body" encourages readers to appreciate the only body they've got. A glossary, reading list, QR codes for Wow in the World episodes, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(2) K-3 Translated by Don Bartlett. With a combination of cartoon illustrations, goofy humor, and candid information, this very Scandinavian baby-making primer approaches the topic with eyes wide open. The title question yields some ridiculous answers ("With dangerous chemicals? With butter, sugar, flour, and eggs?") before getting serious ("Making a baby begins with love"). After some real talk about how couples express affection ("Cuddling together naked, man and woman, woman and woman, or man and man is called having sex. It's something adult couples do because they're close and they like it"), Fiske covers the basics--conception, embryo development, pregnancy--in some depth. The journey of the sperm to the egg, for example, plays out over nine pages. Fiske includes the fact that having sex doesn't always result in a pregnancy and that some couples are unable to conceive ("We don't have any sperm"). The drawings maintain a sense of humor while introducing forthright details about intercourse: as a naked man and woman kiss, his erect penis says, "Hello!" and her vagina replies, "Come in!" This covers-off look at baby-making doesn't leave much to the imagination; those seeking an uninhibited approach to the topic will welcome this book's directness.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021