Disgusting Food Invaders

April 1, 2011

Gr 3-5-Never have the wonders of electron microscopy been more thrillingly displayed. From the back end of a flea burrowing into a human toe to a full-page, luridly red-lit, head-on view of a bedbug, these knife-sharp, all-too-explicit photos are riveting. The texts don't trail far behind in appeal either, offering a rousing commentary on the life cycles and feeding habits of houseflies, head lice, hookworms, molds, bacteria, stinging nettles, and other beastly neighbors beneath headers such as, "Attack of the Plant-Sucking Aphids" and "A Peanut Butter and Rat Hair Sandwich." For added value, each volume includes a boilerplate explanation of how microphotography is done.

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2011
Grades 2-4 With such appetite-suppressing chapter titles as A Peanut Butter and Rat Hair Sandwich and Maggot Cheese, Anyone?, this entry in the Up Close and Gross series gleefully plays up the unsavory side of its subject in a graphic view of the tiny creatures that often share our food. On each colorful spread, short, accessibly worded text-boxes mix with fascinating, microscopic views of food invaders, from helpful cheese mites, whose digestive juices can have a flavor-enhancing effect, to harmful E. coli, pictured in a deceptively lovely rainbow image of the bacteria clinging to the walls of a human digestive tract. Throughout, the simply phrased sentences make the concepts clear, but its the visuals that will attract the most attention and may lead children to the appended resources to search for more information about the hidden organisms humans ingest. Notes about how the photos were created and a glossary conclude this slender installment in a sure-to-be-popular science series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)