Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones

The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones 

by Rachel Poliquin; illus. by Clayton Hanmer 

80 pages; ages 8012

‎Greystone Kids, 2025

Another fun book about the human body by the same team who gave us The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers a couple years ago. I love the table of contents: a map of the Gland Factory so we know where to begin our tour. First stop: the mouth machine. You may want to put on a poncho and a hardhat, because things can get messy on the factory floor. The Mouth Machine has teeth that can crush you dead, and saliva glands that could drown you in spit. 

Make sure you hold on tight as we climb the ladder up to … the nostrils and inner nose. Hmmm, looks like the floor supervisor is doing a safety inspection of the nasal glands…

 After a quick stop at the eyes we get to Main Control in the hypothalamus. No gloop here! This is a messenger gland, a control station that sends and receives a continuous stream of chemicals from endocrine glands. Together they coordinate the body’s vital systems: circulation, digestion, sleep, metabolism, temperature control, and more. These important messages are sent through the bloodstream, similar to rolled up notes stuffed in a bottle and sealed and tossed into a stream. Unlike notes in a bottle, the messages are read and responded to. 

Upon receiving a message, the worker in charge runs it through the hormone decoder machine and then releases the appropriate response hormone from the hormone storehouse. At least that’s how it works in the gland factory. In real life it’s all about body chemistry and receptor cells that ensure the correct hormone message connects with the correct body part.

The tour exits through the waxy ear holes, but before you go, please fill out a visitor survey. (And leave your hardhat and protective gear.) Back matter includes a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an index.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Dinosaurs!

So You Think You Know About … Triceratops?
 by Ben Garrod; illus. by Gabrietl Ugueto, Scott Hartman, & Ethan Kocak
112pages; ages 8-12
Kane Miller/EDC Publishing, 2019

If you thought all dinosaur science was set in stone – ta-da! Scientists are digging up new dino facts every few weeks. So much new science that Dr. Ben Garrod decided each kind of dinosaur deserves its own book about its anatomy, habitats, and behavior. So he’s created a series that explores dinos up-close and personal.

First off, Garrod makes sure readers understand what dinosaurs are, and how they are related. In this book, he talks about how new discoveries can totally revise how scientists think about the dino family tree. And he provides a checklist. Tiny arms? Check. Straight legs? Check.

From there, he dives into the family tree of Triceratops and their relatives. And when they lived (Mesozoic era), and where their fossils have been discovered. Then he does a dino autopsy. Not a real one, because it’s hard to get your hands on a recently-deceased Triceratops. Bone-by-bone, Garrod introduces the skeleton of the dino, with notes on elbows, toes, and how they ran.

Sidebars include “Ask an Expert” and “New Science”, and at the back there’s a fossil finder, answers to the quizzes, and a glossary (the only thing lacking is a pronunciation guide). Other books in the series include Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Velociraptor.

Lifesize Dinosaurs 
by Sophy Henn
32 pages; ages 3-8
Kane Miller Books/EDC Publishing, 2018

Sophy Henn uses her art to show how readers measure up against some of the smallest and largest dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. You’re probably thinking: Riiiight. How can she fit an entire dinosaur onto a page?

Turns out, some dinosaurs were small. Microraptors, for example. From head to tail they easily fit on the diagonal of a full spread. Some dinosaur eggs were small enough to fit on a page. But some dinos were so big that there’s no way to capture the entirety of them on a single page. So Sophy selects their most interesting features. Utahraptors have dagger-sharp curved claws. “Hold your foot up to the page and see how it would look on you!” writes Sophy.

But to compare your smile to the toothy grin of a T-Rex – that requires fold-out pages! Back matter compares dino sizes using the book as the unit of measurement. Which is pretty cool – all you need to do is put a piece of tape on the floor and then flip the book end-over-end 30 times to see how big a T-rex really was. Eighty-three flips for Diplodocus!

Not out yet, but coming soon….

1,000 Facts About Dinosaurs, Fossils, and Prehistoric Life 
by Patricia Daniels
112 pages; ages 8-12
National Geographic Children’s Books, 2020

This is a wonderfully browsable book filled with collections of facts and fun. If you’re looking for something specific, start with the index or table of contents. If you’re ready for adventure, open at random and see where you end up. It might be a page about skeletons, or facts about prehistoric names. For example, Wakiewakie, a prehistoric Australian marsupial, is said to get its name from a local wake up call. And some fossils have been named after musicians, Star Wars characters, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Or perhaps you’ll find yourself diving into a page filled with ocean animals, or treated to an entire page of Triceratops facts.

Check out STEM Tuesday blog – where this month’s theme is Dinosaurs. There’s a book list and more.

To find other dinosaur books reviewed here at Archimedes Notebook, just type “dinosaur” into the search bar over to the right. Review copies provided by the publishers.