If the subtitle of this book won’t grab your students’ attention, then the blurb from the back of the book will: “Featuring facts about stuff that’s slimy, mushy, oozy, crusty, scaly, and smelly!”
Open the book and you’ll find scientific, historic, and gross facts about everybody’s secretions, smells, and scabs. Barf, burps, dandruff, farts, and poop. If it’s gross and relates to your body, it’s in the book. The highly descriptive prose is a great example of what Maupin House author, Melissa Forney, calls “Razzle Dazzle Writing.”
Consider this description of skin. “A huge number of living creatures survive on your skin... These creatures, called bacteria, sway, roll, bounce, swim, eat and reproduce on your skin. They are so small that a dozen could line up across one pore. On your legs about 8,000 bacteria live in each square inch….Under the grease layer on your forehead are about 8,000,0000 critters for each square inch. That’s a larger population of bacteria in one square inch under your forehead than the entire number of people in Kentucky and Tennessee combined!”
After a detailed description of how zits are formed, the reader discovers, “All form of acne start out the same way. Dead skin cells shed inside pores. The dead skin cells then clump together with sebum, bacteria, and bacterial waste in the pore and form a comedo. The word “comedo” actually means “fat maggot” in Latin, because early doctors thought that these bumps were really maggots under the skin…” Gross. (p. 39-41).
This book is a great resource for both science and language arts classrooms. Yesterday, I read snippets of it to students in grades 3-8. A second grader couldn't wait to get his hands on it.
Science written in a highly engaging manner. I love it!
5 comments:
My 3rd grader LOVES her "Oh YUCK!" book and "", so this one sounds right up her alley! :)
I'll have to grab it the next time we are at the store. I think she reads more science books than anything else. She says she loves "TRUE" books. (ya know, non-fiction.) :) :)
sorry... I forget to add the other title "GROSS OUT". I was waiting for her to show me the title and hit send before I realized it. WHOOPS! :)
If she loves nonfiction (Yeah!) then she'll really groove with this book. And it is written so well! Vivid verbs abound!
And Sylvia Branzei has about 4 other books with related titles for those readers who really get into it! Thanks for the gory review, Carol!
Yuk! I'm feeling ill just reading your blurb.
My grandson would love this one, I'm sure!
Jean
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