Nonfiction Monday: What's Eating You

Davies, Nicola. 2007. What's Eating You? Parasites--the Inside Story. Illustrated by Neal Layton.

Is What's Eating You as 'gross' as it sounds? Yes. But it's delightfully so in my opinion. While not every kid will be impressed with gross I-didn't-know-that facts, I think many will. It begins with reminding readers about the concept of habitats. "Up a tree or down a hole, out to sea or in a puddle, somewhere hot or somewhere cold. . .every animal has a habitat, a place where it belongs, a place where it can find food and shelter and have its babies." The book then proceeds by telling readers that there are many animals who make their habitats on or in the bodies of other animals. These animals are called parasites. Parasites that live outside the human body are called ectoparasites. Parasites that live inside the human body are called endoparasites. The book talks about parasites in and on all sorts of animals--from mammals to amphibians, etc. Birds. Fish. Household Pets. Exotic wildlife.

The book is interesting. It is full of I-didn't-know-that facts. It has some clever and not so charming illustrations by Neal Layton. (Believe me, it would be hard for some of these illustrated facts to be charming because they're so gross. But then again, some kids really really love gross. So they might just charm kids.)



One thing that I loved was that the cover itself--beneath the jacket--contains illustrations of various parasites.

The book does include an index and glossary. It is written by Nicola Davies a zoologist, perhaps best known for her book Poop.

To read reviews of other nonfiction children's books....go to Nonfiction Monday's round-up post.