You Can't Smell a Flower with Your Ear!

January 1, 1995
Gr. 1-3. Cole's lively text, with examples drawn from daily life, presents some quite complicated scientific information about how the five senses work. Smith's line-and-watercolor cartoons add to the fun even as they help explain the physiology. There are simple diagrams of the eye, ear, nose, and tongue, and explanations about how nerves "like wires" carry messages to the brain. Experiments encourage kids to "try this" and discover, for example, how the sense of taste gets a lot of help from the sense of smell. Words like "molecules" are no longer intimidating when they describe how the smell of pizza enters your nostrils. Even older readers will welcome this clear, practical title in the All Aboard Reading series. ((Reviewed January 1, 1995))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1995, American Library Association.)