Your Brain: Understand It with Numbers.

Waldron, Melanie.  Your Brain: Understand It with Numbers.  Capstone/Heinemann  2014  48p  $32.00  ISBN 978-1-4109-5980-5      ms  series: Your Body By Numbers  Nonfiction  VG-BNS

     

With middle-school readers in mind, author Melanie Waldron chose to focus on some interesting content, and her organizational skills are impeccable.  She also executed a nearly perfect layout for such a wide variety of information.  Perhaps the strongest feature of Your Brain is her use of numbers in relaying information to young teenagers.  Who wouldn’t be fascinated by comparing a computer to the human brain?  With 500 gigabytes in the average computer’s memory, students will be amazed at the 100,000 gigabytes in the human brain!  Students can either pore through the entire book or open to one section and learn amazing statistics such as these.  Waldron’s book also thoroughly covers information on the senses, movement, respiration, control, the nervous system and the aging brain.  The eight chapters are followed by a post-reading test, a glossary, a list of sites for continued research and an index.  A suggestion for future editions might be the inclusion of a description of the brain lobes with an enumeration of their jobs.  A study of the brain in its entirety is impossible, of course, but students would be fascinated to learn about the frontal lobe and its peculiar jobs.   

Your Body by Numbers includes books about the digestive system, skin and bones, respiration and circulation, and the brain.  Each volume provides a plethora of related information, all tied to statistics and other facts.  A post-test, glossary and index round out each volume. 

Summary: With middle-school readers in mind, author Melanie Waldron focuses on some interesting information about the human brain, with a special emphasis on statistics and other numerical facts. 

Human brain                                     --Martha Squaresky

Waldron, Melanie. How to Read a Map.

Waldron, Melanie.  How to Read a Map.  Capstone/Heinemann     2013  32p ISBN 978-1-4109-4899-1 series: Let’s Get Mapping  elem  E-Bnes  Nonfiction          

This slim book provides an excellent introduction to the basic skills necessary to read a map correctly.  Beginning with an overview of different types of maps, the author discusses the categories of information found on maps, including symbols, compass roses, color shading, contour lines and spacing, map scales, latitude and longitude lines, and directions on how to use the map.  Each topic is covered in a two-page spread highlighted with clear color photographs of the maps described and of children using these maps.  The book ends with a picture of a map and questions relating to this map with included answers, a glossary, bibliography of books and web sites, and an index.      

This excellent new series includes books describing how to read a map, mapping communities, mapping information, mapping the land and weather, mapping the world, and types of maps.  Each includes a mapping activity as the culminating exercise.       

Summary: This slim book provides an excellent introduction to the skills necessary to read a map correctly.        

Maps                                                        --Susan Ogintz