about the book
Are you a tween or teen dying to know about the anatomy and physiology of the human body, but, you know, are just too embarrassed to ask? Here’s the book for you! This nonfiction is even in graphic novel format, so it is fun and easy to read!
The emcee through this all-dancing biology extravaganza is a cheery, and somewhat cheeky, human skeleton. To help her get the sheer volume of information out, she has lots of help—dozens of walking, talking, and wisecracking body parts, as well as food, viruses, blood cells, and other anatomy-related entities that waltz on and off the stage.
Along with information about the five senses and the systems (skeletal, muscular, respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, excretory, endocrine, immune, and nervous), there are all sorts of clearly drawn diagrams and plenty of corny jokes. (Poop wants a parachute on the last part of her journey!) Even reproduction is handled in an informative yet very inoffensive way! The graphic novel even includes pertinent tips about safety, nutrition, and, you know, puberty!
The big surprise comes at the very end of the book. The skeleton dons all the systems and is revealed. You’ll never guess who it is!
about the author
Maris Wicks was a really fat little child. Her parents called her “blotto-baby.” She entered her teens as a semi-blotto angst-y, comic-reading, punk-listening nerd who spent more time with adults than with kids her own age. With her home on the edge of the town’s state forest, she loved nature and science. She also had a passion for art. She thought that at some point in her life she would have to pick just one interest and give up the others. Luckily when she grew up, she found a career where she can be involved in all of her passions.
Maris studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and, upon graduation, immediately got a job on a farm! Over the next few years, she had several quirky jobs, including orchard tour guide, pie baker, EMT, sailing instructor, camp art director, museum educator, Americorp volunteer, mini-comic maker, and stuffed animal creator. The comics and stuffed animals turned out to be the most lucrative.
When First Second approached Maris to submit samples for a script about primates, she was thrilled. She finds it is much easier to draw apes than humans, and orangutans are her very favorite. When she got the call that she got the job to illustrate Jim Ottaviani’s book on primates, she danced around her Boston apartment, hooting like a chimpanzee!
When Maris isn’t busy drawing and writing comics or making her unique stuffed creatures, she works as an educator for the New England Aquarium. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and collects vintage microscopes! No wonder she enjoyed writing about the human anatomy and drawing skeletons for her graphic novel Human Body Theater!
Sources:
Illustrator biography: Dear Teen Me
Illustrator spotlight: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Illustrator interview: School Library Journal
Also by Maris Wicks:
Science Comics : Coral Reefs. First Second. May 2016.
Primates : The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani. First Second. 2013.
read more!
Meanwhile : Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities by Jason Shiga
A boy stumbles into the laboratory of a mad scientist who asks him to choose between testing a mind-reading device, a time machine, and a doomsday machine. Readers will follow the boy on circuitous paths throughout the book, up and down, forward and backward, following thin tubes and tabs, but be careful, you just might run into quantum physics…or a giant squid!
Survive! Inside the Human Body : 1 : The Digestive System by Gomdori Co
Dr. Brain and Geo board an experimental ship which is accidentally shrunk down to microscopic size and swallowed by Geo’s tomboyish friend Phoebe. Trapped in her stomach, Geo learns all about how the digestive system works from Dr. Brain while the frantic lab assistant, Kay, works to alleviate the potentially deadly…and often very humorous…situation.