The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function and Disorders

by Steve Parker

Revealing and detailing all aspects of the body, from the secrets of DNA to the functions of every major body system, this all-in-one encyclopedic guide is packed with accessible health and medical information. Includes a 45-minute interactive DVD.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Reference, Health, Biology, Medical, Childrens

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer of children's and adult's books. He has written more than 300 titles and contributed to or edited another 150.

Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1952, Parker attended Strodes College, Egham and gained a BSc First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Wales, Bangor. He worked as an exhibition scientist at the Natural History Museum, and as editor and managing editor at Dorling Kindersley Publishers, and commissioning editor at medical periodical GP, before becoming a freelance writer in the late 1980s. He is a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Parker is based in Suffolk with his family.

Parker's writing career began with 10 early titles in Dorling Kindersley's multi-award-winning Eyewitness series, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He has since worked for more than a dozen children's book publishers and been shortlisted for, among others, the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize, Times Educational Information Book of the Year, and Blue Peter Book Award.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eyewitness Human Body is filled with wonderfully detailed pictures of realistic models of various body parts and systems. It is compelling and fascinating reading, while just about avoiding being gory or inappropriate.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK I know these are supposed to be kid books but they are awesome! Great pictures and just enough text to make you want to learn more. Great choices for a beginning reader or to start an older reader out in a new area. Every time I pick one of these up and read it I learn new things. Highly Recommended

[Amulya N Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional book!
Though I'm not from science background, I'm curious to know about science/ biology. This book is the bedrock of science and the details are crisp & lucid with wonderful images. Recommend for anyone who is trying to know about science/biology.

[kaitziez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is good as a generalization, but it does not go into depth very well.

[BCL Teen Librarians · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sick of your anatomy or biology textbook? Confused by dull, badly labeled drawings? The Human Body Book is a richly illustrated, full-color masterpiece that will answer every question your anatomy teacher might pose... and then some! Check out how each system works, discover common ailments and disorders, and finally understand the complex interworkings of the individual parts... from the microscopic cellular level all the way to the big picture of your whole body. Whether you are just curious or you have an assignment to complete, this might be the best anatomy book in the library!

Read this if you are insanely curious about the mysterious, gooey, complicated workings of the human body.

--Courtney

[Tisha Kunda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for readers of all ages from 1st grade to adulthood. If a younger reader reads this, I would suggest some parent guidance. The illustrations are excellent. For anyone wanting to know about the internal structures of the body, this is a perfect book. It is a great book to use for a unit about health or the body.

[enitsirK · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is concise, but a good resource nonetheless. It has a lot of nice, colorful illustrations as well. Though, I got a different edition.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of great pictures to show information about the human body. Good for students to get a basic understanding about body processes.

[Karla Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

another amazing dk book - 2009 edition includes wall chart and clip art cdrom.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

#nonfiction ... but still beautiful
#isthisanokaycoffeetablebook?
#loveit

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure where this book fits. It's "coffee table" book sized, but the content is definitely not light reading for the coffee table. I remember getting this book when I was in high school and wanted to go into medicine, but I cannot imagine this was really useful for someone actually in medical school, unless as a quick reference for anatomy. A bit niche of a coffee table book, but interesting nonetheless. For a full discussion of what makes a good "coffee table book" check out this episode of the podcast "From the Archives": https://anchor.fm/anthropologyarchive....

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My third grade son checked this book out from the library. He is fascinated with the human body. He also became fascinated with the images of the developing fetuses. Of course this led to the inevitable conversation of how the fetus got into the mommy's belly in the first place. He decided that God put stardust there and caused it to grow.

[Paola Nájera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recuerdo que mis papás me compraron este libro de pequeña cuando quería ser doctora. Por muchos años lo hojeaba y veía sus preciosas ilustraciones pero hasta ahora me he dado el gusto de leerlo completo. Creo que es una joya por el material y la redacción que tiene, es de fácil compresión y muy bien resumido.

No lo recomiendo para niños pequeños sino tal vez de adolescentes a adultos.

[Bayne Marrs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this with my elementary reading buddy during our last visit and he LOVED it! Very engaging for students of all ages and contains a ton of information about everything you would ever want to know about your body. A must have for any classroom.
2010
Information

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book. I saw people recommend it to young children. It's definitely for a bit older since it does introduce quite a lot of medical words. Overall the visuals and text made it very easy to follow and thoroughly interesting.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great resource for introducing students to the human body. Information. 2004.

[Andrew L · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book it showed a perfect explanation of the human body

[Prince Faisal II · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book showcasing what one could consider the epitome of 'medical writing'.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Series

Parker, Steven. Eyewitness Books: The Human Body. New York: DK Books, 2004.

Summary:

Each of this book's 30 two-page spreads details one aspect of the human body system, including blood, waste disposal, the birthing process, and the nervous system. The book also examines the medical practices and technologies that have been used throughout time to investigate or treat the human body, such as dissection and the invention of the microscope. The information provided on each component of the human body system appears in a paragraph-long summary at the beginning of each section. In addition, each of the book's informational spreads includes several graphics, including large-scale color photograph cross-sections of anatomical models, and photographs of surgical tools, each coming with their own paragraph-long captions, which are provided in smaller text.

Critical Review:

This book, and Eyewitness Books in general, may be more appropriate for some readers than others. Students interested in perusing the book for the sake of gleaning new information will be served quite well by this book, as it does not require- or even expect- a cover-to-cover reading. Some special needs students and struggling readers, though, may be better served by another other scientific series if they require a book for research purposes, as each spread in this book may appear to be very cluttered with their preponderances of images and small-print blocks of text. Students who are overwhelmed by the visuals and text in this series may want to look for a volume with fewer graphics, larger and better-spaced texts, and informational features such as sidebars and informational charts.
Target Audience: Grades 6-12

[Daelyn Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Human Body by Steve Parker is a book that will blow your mind. It has info on the blood, cells, nervous system, bones, including the brain. From early thoughts about biology, to the modern knowledge about the body, this is one book you'll want to read if you're interested into science, biology, or the body.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just begun to study this book and am very excited with what I find. I teach people anatomy of movement, body mapping and how our thinking determines how we move. This volume provides illustrations from CT scans, MRI and x-ray along with three dimensional color diagrams. The text accurately describes how our bodies work. It discusses and illustrates every system and is easy to follow and understand. I recommend it to anyone who is curious about how we are designed and also what can go awry and why.
Now that I have read, studied, and consulted this volume. It ranks, for me, as an excellent resource. I have been using it in my classes and continue to discover more and more lessons.

[Brenda Humphreys]

The Human Body is a great reference book. It has lots of pictures and gives basic information about all the the body systems. This book is for the beginner anatomy student or for people, like me, who just wants the overview of the human body. It is not a text book where it teaches you all kinds of medical terms. I am now reading The Complete Human Body where it goes into more detail in the skeletal and muscular systems. Descriptions are given for each muscle and bone of the body. I do recommend this book to those who are interested in learning more about the human body but not wanting to study it in detail with all the medical terms.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sure I never read through this as a child, and I hardly read through it now. There is some interesting stuff in here, but most of it is written in that dry, encyclopedic way. The human body is inherently interesting, but flavorless description of it kinda kills that.

The picture of the alveoli on page 26 makes me crave mini-marshmallows slowly melting in hot chocolate.

(My used copy has stamped in it: Eugene Public Library.)

[Shelby M. (Read and Find Out) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely meant to be a reference book, not something you straight read through. The variety of images was nice, especially when broken down by body system (and showing how body systems overlap). However, a lot of this information seemed like a review of what I learned in high school health science (and biology and anatomy in college).

[Ronna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular descriptions and pictures of the human body! I found myself grasping concepts I didn’t process previously. Although I feel there are chapters not appropriate for younger viewers, written for teenage scholar audience.

[Jodi A · Rating 5 out of 5]

My oldest daughter is a HUGE human body fanatic and has been since the young age of two. We just picked this book up for her and it's awesome. Great illustrations and detail. Even the cover is cool.

[Df · Rating 3 out of 5]

The human body is a marvelous thing and looking at this book will reveal its true beauty.This book is good for reference for school.The book shows the different bodily systems and functions.The book is also great for kids because it is easy to read and very informative.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

While we didn't really read this book, we did spend a lot of time looking at the pictures and talking about what the different parts of the body were and what they did.

Excellent photography and illustrations.

[Jacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to flip through this book all the time as a young child... It isn't disappointing to pick up as an adult, either! Full of learning material, this book is one I have spent hours pondering. I will continue reading this probably for as long as it takes for me to finish every single page.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illistrations.