cover image Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book: The Monstrous Truth About How Your Body Works

Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book: The Monstrous Truth About How Your Body Works

Richard Walker, . . DK, $24.99 (93pp) ISBN 978-0-7566-4091-0

Talk about mad genius—from conception to execution, padded red cover with 3-D effect to the up-close-and-personal images inside, this anatomy book is as engrossing as any science fiction. Dr. Frankenstein, shown in a sepia photograph standing in a laboratory, gazing at a skull he holds in one hand, invites readers to join him as he creates a human being (“Don't look so startled,” he chides the meek). From there it's on to atoms and the skeletal system, tissues and organs, and so on, presented on visually rich spreads. The story line is sustained with brief, pun-happy journal entries (“Day 11 [on eyes]: Assistant has seen the light”), and the theme reinforced with remarkable design. Gothic fonts and engraved illustrations and vignettes (in red and black and also hand-colored) blend with state-of-the-art images from MEG scans, gamma scans and other advanced technology. Clear explanations broken into easily assimilable captions and text blocks encourage the reader. The only flaw: the subject most likely to interest the target group, the reproductive system, receives such timid mention as to be almost nonsensical (“Male and female reproductive systems differ in structure, but both are involved in producing special cells that join up to make babies”). Ages 10–up. (Sept.)