Eleanor Spicer Rice
Autore di Unseen Jungle: The Microbes That Secretly Control Our World
Sull'Autore
Christoper M. Buddle is associate professor in the Department of Natural Resource Science at McGill University, where he studies the biodiversity of spiders and insects, Eleanor Spicer Rice (www.verdantword.com) is an entomologist, writer, and coauthor of the Dr. Eleanor series of ant guides.
Serie
Opere di Eleanor Spicer Rice
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- female
Utenti
Recensioni
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 7
- Utenti
- 67
- Popolarità
- #256,179
- Voto
- 4.6
- Recensioni
- 4
- ISBN
- 16
This is a great book for upper elementary school- and middle school-aged children. That target audience particularly loves "gross" stuff and bodily functions. This book is written with a very humorous, colloquial style so kids can learn that science doesn't have to be boring. The silly illustrations also help with that.
As Dr. Spicer Rice is an entomologist, many of the various microbial functions talked about in this book deal in one way or another with insects. Other mammals are touched upon as well here and there though. I admit to learning quite a few new things, while other parts I knew at least a little bit about previously (for instance, how cows have four stomachs to digest their food). I'm not sure just how useful most of this knowledge is to everyday life but it's certainly neat to learn more about the biological world around us.
The final chapters are about microbes and humans but they are very brief, with few details. Again, I assume this arises out of insects being the author's specialty and not humans. For the most part, there's just a mention of how microbes live in different parts of the body, including skin, stomach, ears, toes, etc., but not a whole lot about what they do there or any specific microbe names, such as those listed in other parts of the book. This was a little disappointing because this is what interests me the most about microbes and where I was looking forward to learning more.
However, the book does end with recommendations for further reading and source studies for the information contained within its pages, so there's plenty of opportunity for curious readers to learn more.
Overall, this is an engaging, entertaining, and informative book that will appeal to those who want to know more about how the world works, particularly from a biological standpoint.… (altro)