The Egg and Sperm Race
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Cover Story
This issue's cover is a photograph of Anne Frank whose diary is discussed by Michael Rosen fifty years after its first publication. Following the arrest of the Frank family and their companions, the secret annex in Amsterdam where they had been in hiding was locked up and everybody forbidden to enter it, since Jewish possessions became Nazi property and were carted away. Before this happened, the young woman, Miep Gies, who had provided those in hiding with food and who had a second key to the annex, risked herself once more by entering it. Miep retrieved Anne's diary from the devastation together with the Frank family photograph album.
Thanks to Penguin Children's Books for help in reproducing this cover.
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The Egg and Sperm Race
Illustrated by Mic Rolph
Now published as a same-size paperback, the hardback edition of this title received a cordial welcome in BfK 91, March 1995. It is a remarkably full-fashioned introduction to human biology - from cellular level outwards - which settles early on to its task of being happily and straightforwardly informative. It achieves this aim with distinction due to the logical planning of Balkwill's text in excellently plain language which meshes consistently with Rolph's entirely apposite illustrations. This results in a fine example of the sort of trend-free synergy that is becoming all too rare in current information books, so many of which seem to be assembled from pre-existing kits rather than written and illustrated from scratch. Come to think of it - The Egg and Sperm Race itself starts from scratch - as all favourites should.
