The Gooey, Chewy, Rumble, Plop Book

Ingenious paper engineering has breathed life into information books in the last decade or so. But the visual surprises that spring to life as children turn the pages have to be to some point. This exciting pop-up guide to how our bodies digest food scores well here; the three dimensional structures that come into being with pulls or tugs and the copious verbal and visual jokes are combined with the sort of information that encourages thinking. Why does the thought and smell of delicious food make us dribble? How do the valves at the top and bottom of the stomach work? How are processed nutrients absorbed into the blood? These things are all explained in written text as well as in annotated drawings and diagrams. The metaphor of toothpaste being squeezed out of the tube is a good way of imagining peristalsis in the oesophagus. The structure of each digestive organ is made crystal clear and, with the help of tags to push and pull, we are shown how each organ functions. So the book could hardly be more dynamic and interactive. On the page headed ‘Stomach Turning!’ we can turn a wheel to show the walls of the stomach mixing stomach juices with the food. Lift the cellophane flap on the front cover and you can actually feel the texture of the ‘tongue’ licking an ice cream. Young readers are reminded constantly of the sheer efficiency of the human body. I did not know that when a person is about to vomit, moisture enters the mouth to ‘protect the enamel of your teeth from the stomach acid that is on its way’. The sort of questions children really wonder about are answered in a straightforward way – no room for any squeamishness here. Reasonably priced for such a technically demanding book, this would enliven the ‘human body’ shelf in any primary school library.