The Animal Body Book

"The veterinary knowledge really came through. There are lots of books about animals in children’s literature, because children love animals. What we really liked about this book is that it’s a proper book on anatomy, and not just human anatomy, it’s much broader. We felt this is a really a great book for pulling kids in, because they want to learn about animals, but actually it lays out a whole system explaining lots about the different ways that we study anatomy. It’s a really rich book, and I learnt a lot by looking at it. It has great visuals, with wonderful double pages that make you want to read more. We thought the combination of drawings and photos works really well. In terms of its organisation, it’s about different body shapes and how we characterise them, different organ systems, and how they fit together. There’s a section on skeletons, and then information about all the different sorts of skeleton types with examples. One of the pages I really love is on hands. It starts with thinking about our human hand, the best on the planet at grasping and using tools. But across the animal kingdom, there are many different appendages that have evolved, from paws to flippers, and each is perfectly suited for a specific lifestyle. I liked the way that this led me to look at something as familiar as my own hands more like a scientist and think about what they’re good at, and what the other types are good at. It’s a really nice way of systematising thinking about the variety that we see in the animal kingdom, looking at your own body, but also bodies much more broadly — both on the outside and the inside."