What Makes Me Me?

A plastic funnel is loaded with a rich mix of ingredients – phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, H²O etc – and from the other end emerges a girl in a burst of stars. This visual imagery provides an apt symbol for the book, which distils a vast range of information on the human body in a fresh and imaginative way. Winston strives to show just what it is in the mix of water, carbon and a handful of simple chemical elements that makes a person unique. The ingredients that are needed to build a body, including 9 bottles of blood, 2 sq m of skin, 5 million hairs, 1 bucket of fat etc, are all graphically displayed as in a recipe book. Yet though we are all built to the same plan, each one of us is completely different. He goes on to look at genes and how they are inherited, but this time using a 12-part pictorial test to build up a photographic family tree. Similar quizzes and activities follow throughout and there is lots of fun to be had with questions on lateral thinking and spatial intelligence tests. Winston has built a reputation as a scientist who can communicate and in this, his first book for children, he does not disappoint. Combined with DK’s visual flair, the result is an original and thought-provoking book on body and mind.