Generations of middle graders have learned about bodily functions from author Sylvia Branzei and illustrator Jack Keely’s 1995 Grossology: The Science of Really Gross Things! and its multimedia spinoffs, including a traveling science show that’s back on tour. Thirty years after Grossology’s launch, the aptly named imprint Grosset & Dunlap has released a redesigned, commemorative hardcover edition, plus a paperback series filled with facts about humans’ most embarrassing fluids, noises, and odors.
For the original Grossology, Branzei and Keely worked with Jess Brallier of Planet Dexter, which back then was an imprint of Addison-Wesley. The author and illustrator set Grossology’s revival in motion when they noticed its upcoming 30th anniversary. “Maybe we should pitch an idea,” Branzei suggested, and she wrote to Penguin Workshop, the present home of Grosset & Dunlap. She had abundant confidence in the continuing appeal of Grossology, with its matter-of-fact chapters on earwax, tooth tartar, and burping.
Whereas adults demonstrate a “knee-jerk human reaction to barf and poop,” Branzei said, younger generations “get more excited and less disgusted” by the information she shares. They’re curious about—and amused by—bodily systems, she said, and meanwhile, “my friends are always like, ‘OK, Sylvia, you can stop now.’ ” Gen Alpha is just as entranced by boogers and spit as millennials once were, although she has noticed that “the post-Covid generation knows a whole lot more about hand washing” and vanquishing germs.
Keely, whose caricatures of stinky, itchy, unashamed people and animals adorn Grossology’s many iterations, told PW that his aim is “to entertain rather than repel the reader,” although sometimes he does a little of both. “A lot of the content focuses on things that are invisible, like odors; microscopic, like bacteria; or just too repulsive to tackle head-on,” he said. When he illustrates, he tries to stylize slimy, bumpy details and “imply things through characters’ reactions and facial expressions.”
His favorite creation is Nigel Nose-It-All, “the faucet-headed guy with the permanently dripping nose” and the embodiment of a cold or allergy. And after all these years, Keely is still working with Brallier: together, they’ve co-written Tuck and Tina, an early reader series about two adventurous mice, to be released by Puffin in the U.K. in March and by Andrews McMeel in North America in September.
The Time Is Ripe
Series editor Nick Magliato, who follows pop culture and trends for Penguin Workshop, found that middle graders consistently enjoy Grossology. “We’ve looked at the backlist numbers, and it steadily sells,” he said. Penguin Workshop’s team assessed its performance and decided to “give this brand a bit of a facelift.”
Francesco Sedita, president and publisher of Penguin Workshop, noted the continuing appeal of taboo—or at least not dinner-table-appropriate—topics among young readers. He describes Grossology and its related titles as “secretly educational,” introducing science topics like methane in a playful way. “We know that young readers love doing the home experiments in the original Grossology, so expanding that interactive element with new books of activities and games felt like a natural next step,” Sedita added. (The experiments include creating a “fake blister” with petroleum jelly and making a “belch model” using vinegar, baking soda, and a balloon over the sink.)
In addition to the hardcover edition, Penguin Workshop developed a series of “factoid books”: four 5x7, 64-page, easy-to-read paperbacks. Out now are Home Grown Grossology, on everyday things like sweat and pimples, and Nitty-Gritty Grossology, with “over 101 disgusting facts” about subjects like leeches, tapeworms, and vultures. In June, the outdoors-related Untamed Grossology and a set of conundrums called Would You Rather Grossology will arrive on shelves. All target ages 8–12, and Magliato called the books “bite-sized,” although they are unappetizing by design.
“Gross stuff is just evergreen,” Magliato said, “and since there’s educational content behind it, you’re set up for success.” A series of browsable factoid books provides “a good benchmark for retailers—they want to see more than just two,” and releasing them a few months apart “keeps the momentum going” across seasons. “These are nice little stocking stuffers,” he added, or something to entertain kids on a plane or road trip.
Branzei expressed amazement that Grossology “has been such a big part of my life for so many years.” In the 1990s, before the book was published, “a friend said that I would sell one copy or a million,” and the latter prediction proved more accurate, Branzei said. “You always get a new generation of future grossologists! It’s a book that won’t die.”