The Body Atlas: A Pictorial Guide To The Human Body

by Steve Parker

Explores the diverse systems of the human body and their functions, the major organs, and how the different parts of the body work together

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Medicine, Reference, Childrens

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer known for producing hundreds of children's and adult nonfiction books covering zoology, medicine, evolution, and natural history. Educated at the University of Wales, Bangor, where he earned first class honours in zoology, he later worked at the Natural History Museum and held editorial positions at Dorling Kindersley before becoming a freelance author during the late 1980s. Parker contributed early titles to the acclaimed Eyewitness series and later wrote award-winning books including Science Crazy, Fizzing Physics, The Human Body Book, and Kill or Cure. He has also edited major collaborative works on evolution and medicine, regularly visits schools and libraries, and serves as a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

Reviews

[Ginny Burge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enamel, the hardest substance in the body.

But many sensations, such as feeling the wind on your face, do not involve actual contact. Rather, the wind moves and bends your facial hairs, and tiny, sensitive nerves wrapped around the base of each hair detect these movements.

Your eyes are actually an extension of your brain. The optic nerve and the retina grow out of the brain before birth, rather than forming separately.

Every time you blink, tears wash your eyes. When your eyes “water,” or if you cry, extra tear fluid floods out of the tear, or lacrimal, glands. This fluid drains into two tiny holes on the nose side of the eyelids, into a larger tube, the tear (lacrimal) sac, then into your nose. This is why you have to blow your nose after a good cry.

The reflex action that causes hiccups happens in two stages. First, the diaphragm contracts sharply when its nerves become irritated. Then, as soon as you breathe in, a flap of skin over your esophagus snaps shut, making a clicking sound.

[Kylie Quigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. It was a great introduction to the body as a whole and all the different parts. It reminded me of just how cool the human body is. How much it does and we don't even know about it. Like...me typing this right now. The muscles and tendons in my hand are pulling to place my fingers in different directions so that I can type. It's amazing, honestly. Just how much we are capable of doing without even thinking of it.

[Hein]

good

[Annie Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cool!

[Cosmiccai713 · Rating 5 out of 5]

very informational

[Franklyn Kornn]

Good to use in a science classroom when talking about the body and the different systems in the body and their functions. Included a lot of academic vocabulary which will help the students understand the function and role of different parts/organs/etc. This book would also be a great tool to use with your ESL students due to the high amount of academic vocabulary and the pictures to assist with understanding.