The Human Body

Ideal for the scientifically minded or the faintly morbid.
This anatomy guide boasts up-to-the-minute information with a victorian twist; set in the 1839, it casts the reader as a medical student embarkng on their first dissection. Loving coloured mutilayed flaps and pop-ups give a brilliant sense of the human form's complexity.

* The Guardian *
a Victorian-style guide by Richard Walker to the workings of our bodies with finely detailed pictures by Rachel Caldwell. Good and gruesome. * The Evening Standard *
We've been oooh-ing and aah-ing over this insanely complex pop-up book - it lets you peer right inside the human body without using a scalpel! Peel back flaps and remove the illustrated organs to reveal the inner workings of our bodies. The intricate paper engineering and clear descriptions transport you to an operating theatre in Victorian Britain, giving an incredible insight into what's inside of us. * National Geographic Kids *
A cracking pop-up book with a twist. Not just a visual spectacle, this book hand-holds the reader through a victorian-era dissection under the careful instruction of Dr Walker, who guides and comments on every lift-up flap and 3D vital organ. the characterisation and storyline really add to the expereince, and this book is bound to appeal to children aged 9-12 who are interested in science, history and medicine. * School Reading List *

The human body is often described as a miracle of nature... and now you can see the mysteries of its inner workings literally spring to life in this remarkable, interactive pop-up guide to anatomy.

The human body is complex, amazing, gruesome, but mostly extraordinary. It moves, senses, thinks and grows, whilst also being capable of reproducing, repairing and defending itself. Although we are familiar with the outside appearance of the body, much of what it does goes on unseen inside us, every second of the day. This fascinating book aims to explain these processes and, in turn, to help youngsters (and their parents!) understand them by looking in detail at the structure and workings of the body from the head downwards. By combining incredible paper engineering with Victorian-inspired illustrations by debut artist Rachel Caldwell and medical notes written by human body expert Richard Walker, The Human Body provides a compelling and in-depth exploration of how the body works. It's 1839 in Victorian Britain and you are a medical student working on your first human body dissection in an operating theatre! Under the watchful eye of Dr Walker, peel back the flaps and remove the organs to reveal the inner workings of the human body layer by layer, from bone and muscle, to the brain, eyes, heart, lungs and everything in between. Your apprenticeship begins here!

Lift the flaps, look inside the intricately detailed pop-ups and then peruse the glossary at the end which lists everything you have seen, from the arteries and capillary blood vessels to nerves, neurons, muscles, the spinal cord and cell tissues. Caldwell's scientific artwork is breathtaking while Walker's medical notes are eminently accessible with plenty of interesting facts and flashes of humour to keep young readers entertained. The perfect gift for budding scientists and doctors... and all curious kids!

-- Pam Norfolk * Lancashire Evening Post *

Our first Picture Book of the Week this week is a serious "WOW!" book, and a thoroughly absorbing guide to what's under your skin...Imagine being a Victorian medical student, charged with finding out more about the human body. Back then the only option was to find yourself a fresh cadaver (by legal means, naturally, none of that Burke and Hare nonsense!) and start peeling back the skin to see what lay underneath. Thankfully this is 2019 and we don't have to resort to such methods to learn a lot more about our fascinating bodies.

In "The Human Body: A Pop-Up Guide to Anatomy" by Richard Walker and Rachel Caldwell, you can do the same from the comfort of your own armchair with some of the most astonishing paper engineering we've seen in a body book.

Each illustration takes its cues from classic anatomy books of the 19th century, but in full colour - with layer after layer of rather gruesome but endlessly fascinating anatomy to find out more about, starting with the head!Each page delicately reveals layer after layer of detail, and descriptive text to explain what you're looking at - and how it all works.From the head the book moves down to the chest, again fully revealing your muscles, skeleton and vital organs tucked inside. It's absolutely astonishingly detailed, and so utterly clever we couldn't fail to fall completely in love with it.

Definitely more suitable for older kids but thoroughly fascinating and extremely cleverly done.

* Read it Daddy *

Lastly, it would not be right to explore humans and humanity without one in-depth look inside the body. This comprehensive, somewhat gruesome, guide to the human body invites the reader to venture on a real post-mortem examination, cleverly using paper engineering so that the reader can look beneath body parts - my favourite section definitely the abdomen, in which you can open up the body to see the kidneys and small intestine from different angles.
The illustrations feel old-school, traditional, multi-layered in their detail (each is highly captioned to show which body part is which), and also with instruments pencil-sketched too, so that the scalpel and tweezers lie happily next to the body. The book explains the different systems of the body - circulatory, respiratory etc, with keen observation and elucidation. Sentences are short and sweet, keeping it simple without numerous subclauses interrupting the information, and it feels matter-of-fact and clear.
You can lift the blood spatter to see it under a microscope, or open the heart to see how it works. Each tooth has been extracted so that they can be labelled, and the thorax can be opened in many layers to explore the ribs, lungs and heart. There's even opportunity to remove the skin from the upper arm and shoulder to see the muscles underneath. This is a thoroughly enjoyable way to be educated on the human body and how it works, and a beautifully stylised well-thought-out book.

* Minerva Rea