This book looks at digestion and all the "gross" and "horrible" parts of it. There are many snippets describing some of the gross things that people did to progress (or regress) the understanding of digestion. It is a fun book that explores digestion in a way kids will remember. It also provides many little known historical bits.
The book on floods starts with examples of floods in the midwest. It then goes to explain the cause of floods and follows up with other examples, such as Katrina in New Orleans. It felt detailed without being too long.
Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle translated by William Gardiner
This book is a mixture of science and science fiction. It explores the various bits of astronomy that were known in the 17th century, and then speculates on the other species that inhabit planets and moons. The author suspects that the moon and other planets have inhabitants. They observe the earth in a way similar to how we observe the moon and other planets. It may have been written as pure science, but could easily read as a modern science fiction book.
Some kids are interested in space. Then we see descriptions of the planets and various space objects. The book is just the right length - not too verbose, but not too sparse. It also has an interesting mix of photos and drawings.
Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies - Updated Edition by Charles Perrow
Increasingly complex systems are increasingly susceptible to cascading risks. The book goes through many detailed examples.The first one is a contrived example from regular life. A man has many small issues happen that cause him to miss a meeting at work. Any of the items alone would not be a problem. However, they all built on top of each other to create a catastrophe. Bigger catastrophes were detailed, such as three mile island nuclear disaster. Many things had to fail together to cause the meltdown. Some of the safety and redundancies helped contribute to the problem.
After an incident occurs, there is usually a desire to assign blame. However, in today's world, it is difficult to assign single blame. Many of the actions that lead to the disaster would not normally be a problem. However, they became an issue when everything was linked together. In the afterward the author is thankful that society has become more willing to acknowledge these system issues rather than continue to try to assign individual blame. (Alas, there is a still a strong legal incentive to assign blame.)
Today's society is increasingly susceptible to system issues. Redundancies are eliminated from systems in the name of efficiency. That works great when things are functioning normally. However, it also means small things can cascade out of control quickly and bring down entire systems. Attempts to make systems more "safe" can sometimes be the source of failures. A warning that fires too often may be ignored. Automatic safety responses could lead to damage to different systems. Areas such as nuclear power and genetic engineering have power to destroy society if systems break down. How do we protect the world? This book is extremely detailed in the exploration of the problem. It does not pose any simple solutions to a problem that eludes them.
The book shows the lifecycle of chickens with illustrations showing the various states. It has a decent amount of detail, but is fairly short.
Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr
I did not like the voice of the narrator of this audiobook. Not sure what was the issue, but it is hard to get involved with the book. Sally Ride was shy. She became the first female astronaut. She encouraged girls to get involved in science. She was involved in studying the earth, and had some university positions teaching physics. She had a traditional marriage with a male astronaut that lasted a few years, but then lived most of her life in a private lesbian relationship. She "came out" only in her obituary after she died from cancer. The biography felt fairly distant. She didn't leave many personal records, and was fairly tight-lipped in interviews, so much of what we have on her is through others.
What are the different types of tongues that animals have? Some are strong, while some can smell from a long way away. What would it be like if you had a tongue like one of these? Perhaps a long one would let you get things without having to leave the couch. Perhaps another would let you be a great taste tester. This book has a nice way of introducing the unique aspects of animal tongues while relating them to kids.
The Complete What's Your Poo Telling You (Funny Bathroom Books, Health Books, Humor Books) by Josh Richman (Author), Anish Sheth (Author)
This is a quick book about poo and pee. What do the different colors and consistencies mean? What causes odors? Why is some poo difficult to wipe, while others are clean? This book provides simple medical analysis of human excrement. There are also bits of history and comparison to different animals. The book is fairly short and could be a bathroom reader. (However, sitting on the throne could produce impacted hemorrhoids.) It is light and interesting, but there are some highlights with black on red that can be difficult to read due to poor contrast.
This is a simple story of the natural cycles. A tear waters the ground that produces an oven and makes the farmer cry. The text is simple and the illustrations stylish. There is a little note that the drawings were drawn with a mouse on the computer. In 1999, that may have been novel.
This is one of those DK books. It has very nice pictures and some words that go along. It was written by committee and felt familiar. There is not much originality, but if you are into penguins, it is for you.
The Science Delusion: Asking the Big Questions in a Culture of Easy Answers by Curtis White
I was expecting a lot more from this essay praising romantic-era thought. The author begins by criticizing modern atheistic deterministic thought. Science can explain everything. Even human thought and "freewill" are seen as illusions predertmined by chemical activity. The author's response is that this argument is too simplistic and that we need to pay attention to the arts and humanities. There is an emphasis on looking at the romantic era and how science was a subset of the arts.
The arguments came up fairly flat. "Look at the arts! You can't use a computer to identify what is great art!" It feels rather flat. Does science have all the answers? Could the arts be explained by science? How can one really respond to a "know it all" that seems to have all the right answers (even if the right answers change all the time.)
Monarch Butterflies by Kate Waters
Monarch butterflies start as efgs milkweed. Then they go through their lifecycle to turn into butterflies before flying away to warmer climates. They typically fly during the day. The book is a quick look at butterflies.
The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in Its Pants: A Book about Ants by Linda Ward Beech (Author), John Speirs (Illustrator)
This magic school bus book was adapted from the TV show. The quality of the illustrations and stories were not as good as the regular books. (Despite not writing it, the series originators took the copyright credit.) In this one, they become ants and explore the different roles of ants.
Amazing Animal Babies (Eyewitness Junior) by Christopher Maynard
Each page has a bigger picture of a certain animal, with a number of smaller pictures. It has a lot of text, making it more like a reference book. We just identified the main pictures of animals and skipped most of the text.
