The Quest To Digest

Humorous text and illustrations follow an apple's journey through the human digestive system. Discover why mucus is so important to your body and how food particles are absorbed by the small intestine and turned into energy. Readers also learn why we burp, vomit, and pass gas.
Reading Level: Grade 3-6

Review:

This is a well-illustrated book that both kids and adults will enjoy. The Quest to Digest is an easy, fun, interesting, accessible, entertaining account of the digestive process. The funny and witty illustrations are very useful and effective at conveying a complex idea to a child. For example, the brain is portrayed as a sergeant commanding his "troops," the salivary glands, to start secreting when the brain smells or thinks about food. Another concept that can be tricky to explain to students of any age is cellular respiration, but author Mary Corcoran does an admirable job with this topic in just a few sentences, a truly remarkable feat. A minor problem with the anatomy illustrations is that the common bile duct is not shown to be connected to the duodenum.

The information in the book is really boiled down and presented in a fun, kid-friendly way. Adults can learn a ton from this as well. This wonderful book is an anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology lesson, in addition to a fun read!