NSTA Recommends



Zoom: Human Body


by Nicholas Harris

Price at time of review: $27.44
31 pp.
Gale Group
Farmington Hills, MI
2002
ISBN: 1567116930


Grade Level: K-8
Reviewed by Janet Holden
Director of Lower School Science


Have you ever used the "zoom" feature on a camera? It enables your eye to capture progressively more detail as you zoom in. Each book in the Zoom series uses the same technique with a single topic in science. Page after page, text boxes describes that science area in greater detail, encouraging the reader to “zoom” in for a closer look at that topic.

The Human Body starts with an image of a sleeping child The reader flips a cut-out shaped like a lens to take a closer look at the organs. My students loved looking at a mosquito biting a child's skin, then zooming down to the nucleus of the cell.

Each 30-page volume ends with several pages of additional information. The hand-drawn illustrations and colored plates show interesting details that catch the eye. A glossary of terminology is included with each of the Zoom books, but early elementary students would have difficulty reading these books indpendently. These would make excellent research resources for upper elementary and middle level students, however, or read-alouds for younger students. The size comparisons in the drawings provide natural connections to mathematics.



Review posted on 6/20/2003

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