Published: 1 January 2024
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Illustrator: Zahra Zainal
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
This is me. My body can See, Hear, Smell, Taste and Touch. But it also knows if it is Hot or Cold if I am Sideways or Upside Down . and many other things. Come and explore the human (and other) senses with me!This book is a celebration of the wonderful things the human body can do thanks to nerves and other senses and receptors. From the first page you know it’s going to be an engaging book as our main character invites us to celebrate all the wonderful things their body can do.
The illustrations are comical but educational and simplified to help understanding. The text, pictures, and formatting all work together to create a fun display of information and really highlight the information being told. It’s funny, clever, and creative and it helps digest the information as you can see the process play out on the page.
The personification of the creatures and the parts of the body help demonstrate the information being told such as taste, sound, or the myriad of other activities. Seeing smiling tastes buds when eating ice cream or cells activating shivering when cold are great demonstrations of how our bodies react to different situations.
The examples are all things kids could experience like feeling full, being dizzy, hurting themselves, or relaxing. Being able to compare these things to every day experiences is a great way to help them understand how their body works and why and how certain things are happening.
It also branches out briefly to show that other bodies know different things as well like pigeons knowing where to fly, whales knowing how to sing, and platypus can sense electricity.
I was surprised how detailed the book became while never getting bogged down in detail or science. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting and I loved this joyful exploration of how amazing human bodies (and other animals) are.
You can purchase How Do I Know If I’m Upside Down? via the following
