Saturday, September 14, 2013

Great Gobs of Gustation

Okay, you may be wondering what "gustation" means. It's the ability or process of tasting. And Bill Kirk's new book in his The Sum of Our Parts series is an especially delicious one.
Great Gobs of Gustation is the eighth one in the series. It's all about our sense of taste.  The book is for kids and I'm a grown-up (at least on the outside) but it taught me lots of information I never knew before.

As in the other books in the series, the scientific information is presented in an amusing way with lots of rhymes. The amusing illustrations by Eugene Ruble add to the fun of reading it.

While the book is intended for Middle Grade kids, ages eight to thirteen, it's not very long and the rhymes could be read aloud to younger children.

In my opinion every school should have all the books in Kirk's The Sum of Our Parts series in its library because they'll teach kids a lot about human bodies and even reluctant readers will find them interesting. The scientific vocabulary is a bit difficult for kids who can't read well, though.

 I've reviewed several of his other books in the series on this blog before and you can see those posts here:
http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/skeletons.html
 
http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/muscles-make-us-move.html

http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-ins-and-outs-of-air.html

3 comments:

Bill Kirk said...

Thanks so much for the thoughtful and well-seasoned review of "Great Gobs Of Gustation", Janet. I appreciate the kind endorsement. Here's hoping there will be a few nibbles among the readers out there.

penelope anne cole said...

Hi Jan, great review of Bill's new book! I agree with you -- his books should be in every elementary and middle school, plus doctors' and dentists' offices! Wishing Bill much success.

Janet Ann Collins said...

Bill, I hope so, too.

Penelope, I hadn't thought about medical offices, but you're certainly right that those would be great places for the books.