A Tour of the Human Body - (Number Tours for Curious Kids) by Jennifer Berne (Hardcover)

About the Book

"What are you made of? How does your body work? Come on our tour and see how numbers tell the amazing tale"--Title page.

Book Synopsis

This picture book for young readers is a tour of the human body revealing the wonders of how it all works -- with some astonishing numbers and fascinating facts along the way.

From our eyes to our toes, kids will find out what makes the human body tick in this engaging STEM nonfiction book. They'll discover that our hearts beat 100,000 times a day, which equals 36 MILLION times a year. And that our tongue's 8,000 taste buds can detect only 5 flavors. And that we have 60,000 miles of blood vessels, enough to circle the world more than twice!

Noted children's author Jennifer Berne shares these remarkable facts and numbers alongside vivid informative illustrations by Dawn DeVries Sokol, resulting in a book that will transport kids on an entertainingly educational journey.

Review Quotes

2025 Kansas NEA Reading Circle List

"Berne's counts and measures of the cells and organs of the human body illustrate just how remarkable--and quantifiable--we are. 'Did you know' that we are composed of '30 trillion cells, ' eight thousand taste buds, and '60,000 miles' of blood vessels? Or that '15 million cells in your body were replaced by new ones in the time it took you to read this sentence'? Numerous other facts about our sensory organs and digestive, skeletal, respiratory, and circulatory systems are equally impressive. The organized layouts include diagrammatic illustrations that effectively portray each system, often within a child-size human body outline, accompanied by text on scraps of lined notebook paper that appear taped onto the pages. The end notes should not be skipped, as they include noteworthy details about the various systems, additional number facts, and an important statement about the degree of certainty of some of the numbers. An interactive section at the very end of the book encourages readers to measure their own bodies and to calculate the volume of their blood, their heart rate, and number of bones in their hands."--The Horn Book

"From head to toe, Berne takes it by the numbers...Many [numbers] come with imaginative comparisons that make the larger ones at least somewhat easier to grasp...In loose, casual drawings and schematic views, Sokol helps out by unwinding intestines (25 feet) against the wall of a two-story house, stacking pennies representing cells in piles that reach the moon, and posting simplified but labeled images of lungs, a skeleton, an inner ear, and other anatomical bits. Before finishing off with additional, less number-centric facts about body parts and showing readers how to take personal measurements, Berne brings her selective tour of body systems to a close with a final, entirely comprehensible number: 'We are 1 people, 1 species, 1 family' living on '1 home.' Racially diverse, fleshed-out human figures in the pictures drive home that sense of kinship.Counts as a lively and unusual approach to the subject." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Jennifer Berne is the author of several acclaimed children's books, including Manfish: The Story of Jacques Cousteau, Look Up with Me, On a Beam of Light, and her most recent, How the Sea Came to Be. Her work has made the Kirkus Best Picture Books list, the Junior Library Guild Main Selection list, and received several starred reviews from Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and many others.

Dawn DeVries Sokol is an author, illustrator, professional art journaler, and designer of books. Her book Doodle Diary sold more than 150,000 copies. She has written and illustrated 12 nonfiction books for major publishers as well as a trio of board books for children. Dawn teaches her art journaling methods and techniques online and her artwork has been exhibited in books, on websites, and in galleries around the world.