2025 Kansas NEA Reading Circle List

"Berne’s counts and measures of the cells and organs of the human body illustrate just how remarkable—and quantifiable—we are. 'Did you know' that we are composed of '30 trillion cells,' eight thousand taste buds, and '60,000 miles' of blood vessels? Or that '15 million cells in your body were replaced by new ones in the time it took you to read this sentence'? Numerous other facts about our sensory organs and digestive, skeletal, respiratory, and circulatory systems are equally impressive. The organized layouts include diagrammatic illustrations that effectively portray each system, often within a child-size human body outline, accompanied by text on scraps of lined notebook paper that appear taped onto the pages. The end notes should not be skipped, as they include noteworthy details about the various systems, additional number facts, and an important statement about the degree of certainty of some of the numbers. An interactive section at the very end of the book encourages readers to measure their own bodies and to calculate the volume of their blood, their heart rate, and number of bones in their hands."—The Horn Book

"From head to toe, Berne takes it by the numbers...Many [numbers] come with imaginative comparisons that make the larger ones at least somewhat easier to grasp...In loose, casual drawings and schematic views, Sokol helps out by unwinding intestines (25 feet) against the wall of a two-story house, stacking pennies representing cells in piles that reach the moon, and posting simplified but labeled images of lungs, a skeleton, an inner ear, and other anatomical bits. Before finishing off with additional, less number-centric facts about body parts and showing readers how to take personal measurements, Berne brings her selective tour of body systems to a close with a final, entirely comprehensible number: 'We are 1 people, 1 species, 1 family' living on '1 home.' Racially diverse, fleshed-out human figures in the pictures drive home that sense of kinship.Counts as a lively and unusual approach to the subject." —Kirkus Reviews