The Skeleton Inside You

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2

by Philip Balestrino, True Kelley (Illustrator)

Read and find out all about what a skeleton can do in this colorfully illustrated nonfiction picture book. Your skeleton helps you leap, somersault, and touch your toes—without it, you would be as floppy as a beanbag! There are over 200 bones living and growing inside you that make up your skeleton. There are also ligaments and joints that hold your bones together, and cartilage in your bendable parts like your ears and your nose. Read and find out more in Skeleton Inside You ! This is a clear and appealing science book for early elementary age kids, both at home and in the classroom. Now updated with a new cover look, this book features content-rich vocabulary, fascinating side bars and diagrams, and beautifully detailed illustrations. This is a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades. The 100+ titles in this leading nonfiction series Top 10 reasons to love Books in this series support the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, Health, Halloween, Biology

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a pretty decent job of introducing the idea that we all are essentially skeletons covered in meat, and also filled with blood and stuff, and basically just piles of organic matter doing our best. Gave some good examples of things that aren't filled with skeletons, for example clay. You can smash a clay ball because it isn't filled with bones, fun fact! It's a cool first look into introducing existence preceding essence, Satre style, for those of us wishing to raise our children with an early and basic sense of anguish. Just wish it had gone a bit into how to face the catastrophic existential crisis you feel boiling up inside you after about year 10 into your adulthood, you know, deep in those bones. As well as the steadily increasing feeling of dread or the unknowable horror that you and your skeleton inside start to feel as you age and realize that your prison of flesh is mortal and yet inescapable, and relentlessly limiting. 4/5 stars.

[Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just found this while cleaning out/organizing my bookshelf with a happy Halloween note from my kindergarten teacher attached to it from 20 years ago haha. Obviously gave it a quick read-what a great way to introduce children to anatomy!

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good book that explains the skeletal system. Straightforward with good analogies and examples. A child should be able to have a good handle on the skeleton after reading this.

[Isaiah Cutts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of The Skeleton Inside You by Philip Balestrino

Part of growing up is all the bumps and bruises and sometimes broken bones children experience in playing and exploring the world around them. Having a book that reveals some of the mystery of the skeleton inside is helpful to answer many of the inevitable questions a child will ask when they first encounter the concept of one of those bones breaking. This book is part of an award winning series of classroom friendly science picture books complete with official vocabulary, bars and graphs and diagrams for the youngest child to understand the many bones that make up the human skeleton. The illustrations are a cross between comic book and textbook so it is a very child friendly first science book about bones.
The book begins by explaining the purpose of bone structure and then gives laymen names to all the different 206 bones that connect to make a skeleton. It discusses what happens when a bone is broken and medical treatment and the healing process. It covers the basics of how bones grow as we get older, and the best foods to keep our bones strong. Then it dives deeper into what is going on inside the bone, its inside structure, and how it makes the red blood cells. It discusses joints and ligaments and how they help our bones move so by the end of the book the reader will have a good first level understanding of the science of bones and maybe go look for the next level book to answer more questions it inspired.

This is a great quick read for the classroom that will hold a child’s attention with its simple illustrations in answering some of the basic questions an early elementary student may have about their skeleton and bones. It would work well as a take home reading assignment in reinforcing a textbook lesson or as a fun choice to fulfill a reading list requirement. It could also serve as an opening book to a deeper unit study.

[Chloe DeRocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Awards the book has received: none

2. Appropriate grade levels: Pre-K through 2nd Grade

3. Original Summary: Want to know what holds you all together? "The Skeleton Inside You" looks at you from the inside out. Get ready to learn all about your bones and what they help you do!

4. Original Review: "The Skeleton Inside You" is an age-appropriate book for children learning about their bones and what they do. The language helps the subject not come off as scary even though skeletons might be frightening to some younger children. The facts are stated clearly with plenty of examples to further explain them in a child-friendly way.

5. This book could be used as a resource for child-generated research on the skeleton or the human body. The facts in the book are easy to find along with labeled pictures that would serve helpful for research purposes.

This book could also be used around Halloween time to get younger students used to what skeletons are actually for. Reading this book might help with them feeling scared of all of the skeletons around that time of year.

[Cara Noles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Skeleton Inside You is a picture book and it explains why their are bone inside us. Their are 206 bones that make up our skeleton, without bones we couldn't stand up. The book also explains what cartilage and joints are without them we would not be able to move our bodies like we do. Their are picture that explain what inside our bones look like and what happens if we break on of our bones.

I enjoyed this book because it is very educational and children can benefit from reading this book. I liked how the book explained everything in way children will understand it. The pictures that went along with the text helped explain what the text meant.

I would use this book while teaching for science to explain how the human body is put together and how it works. I think it is very education to know about our skeleton, cartilage, and joints. The book explains how our bones grow and promotes healthy eating to gain bone strength. I think students would like learning about the human body through this book.

[Anthony Minieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informational Text
Awards: N/A
Appropriate Grade Levels: k-5
Summary: The Skeleton Inside You is all about the body--the main theme of course being the skeleton. This book gives children insight about their skeleton by using multiple comparisons and examples. Bones are labeled and even muscle tissue is discussed in this informative book for young readers.
Review: Skeletons have always been a huge interest of mine so I was able to gravitate towards this text very easily. The books is easy to follow and does not use a lot of heavy vocabulary. This book does not only provide information but, it does so in the form of a story. Those interested in science would fall in love with this.
In-Class Uses:
-Useful for teaching about the human body
-Use a felt board along with the book to create a skeleton
-Children glue together their own skeleton that they can color and display in the hallway (Halloween)

[Dominique Giordano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Skeleton Inside You is on my favorite list because of the reliability of the text was and how exciting the learning was. Being an informational text, it contained information about your skeleton and went through lots of different details from the how many bones the body has to the bones uses in different parts of the body to what is inside the bone. Designed for K-2, It can be enjoyed as a whole class read aloud. I can imagine the students being fascinated by the information.

In the reading classroom, teachers could use this book to teach about the bones in the body as well as comparisons such as similes or metaphors.

[Cursed_Ornaj_Jooce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this and read it when I was a kid, but I read the one illustrated by Tom Bolognese. That version cannot be found here, for some reason. I've never seen this version. Tom's version has a visual style that stood out to me enough that I remember looking at it long and hard, unlike most books I recall cracking. As for the words themselves, I don't remember them. Its (literal) dark visuals and scratchy inked lines are a small part of the seeds that sowed my love for art and the beauty of anatomy.

[Lumi / Otso · Rating 5 out of 5]

the 7 year old loved this

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plenty of information on bones, cartilage, marrow, joints, ligaments, etc. presented in a straightforward manner. Illustrations are okay; not great.

[Ashlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has stood the test of time and remains gold standard for teaching little about their skeletal system.

[☆BooksofAFairy☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this books my mom use to have.

[Jen Rothmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Balestrino is very informative for its target age. It covers and explains, in simplistic language any child should be able to understand, the concepts that the skeleton is a framework, there are 206 bones with many in the hands and arms, there are different sizes and shapes, the difference between bone and cartilage, bones can break and heal, bones grow, calcium helps bones, the inside of a bone looks different than the outside and the inside stores calcium, bone marrow helps make red blood cells and is inside the spongy core, the skeleton protects organs, the joints and bones and ligaments work together to allow movement (surprisingly, nothing about muscles), and we are able to be flexible and twist and turn because of joints.

My children (ranging from 1 to 9 at the time we read this), all listened to the book and looked at the pictures.

I would have given this book a solid four rating, but while the illustrations by True Kelley were adequate, they were not beautiful.

[Katie Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very informative book! It was written in a way that captured and kept my interest. There were lots of facts about the human skeleton. The author also compared the human skeleton to other things, like a plain wooden chair (as the bones) and then the plain wooden chair with stuffing and cloth on it (as the human). It also compares what our body would be like WITHOUT a skeleton (a ball of clay that you can mold into any shape you want). It talks about the importance of joints and ligaments, the number of bones in your body, and how the skeleton helps you move. The ending of the book repeated the beginning information in a different way, which I thought was a great way to close the book. This would be a great book to use during science class!

[Madeline W · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty great children's book that details all the inner workings of the body. I had to read this aloud while applying for a job recently, which is why it is on here twice (although the fact that I did not have to log it initially at my age of 23 is perhaps questionable). I do think it is a tad slowly paced for children, but the details are fun, the art is bright, and it is definitely educational.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to a 7 year who loved it! It prompted lots of great questioning and connections about how we move and our bodies in an accessible manner. Lots of colorful illustrations and diagrams help provide deeper understanding of vocabulary like joints, ligaments, and cartilage. Great classroom book or read aloud!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a science book and talks about skeletons and what would happen to a person if they did not have a skeleton inside their body! You could easily tie this in with a science lesson in the beginning school years.

[Kim Hoerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to read around Halloween! Wonderful informational book about our bones. It flows well with reading Dem Bones and talking about health.

[Amber]

1 copy available

[Shunta · Rating 3 out of 5]

book about bones, xrays, and the body. Would use during science in upper grades.

[Hailey Dellinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a children’s book that is about a child’s Halloween skeleton costume. This is a great fun way to incorporate the skeletal system into the classroom.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 13824 EN Nonfiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: LG - BL: 3.8 - AR Pts: 0.5
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Chelsea Kimmey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of vocabulary words that are used when learning about the bones in the body. It could introduce the words in a way where the children can understand.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 3 year old likes to be read this book and he seems to understand the information as it is presented.

[Noah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the illustrations were pretty good, but the writing was sub-par, even for kids science. Also, bone is not the same thing as cartilage.

[Elanor]

Independent

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative an interesting for young kids

[Taylor Darst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, the kids learn about the inside of the body and the bones that make up the body.

[Christine Turner]

ATA Wonder Kit - You,
HCPL Juv Nonfiction 611.71 Bal

Note: I am not fond of the style of these illustrations, but they are well thought out and add to the learning experience. The text by Philip Balestrino and the illustrations were vetted for accuracy by an expert in the field. This book would pair well with the other books that we have chosen for the You kit.

Your skeleton helps you leap, somersault, and touch your toes--without it, you would be as floppy as a beanbag! There are over 200 bones living and growing inside you that make up your skeleton. There are also ligaments and joints that hold your bones together, and cartilage in your bendable parts like your ears and your nose. Read and find out all about what a skeleton can do!

This is a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science title, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades and supports the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Subject: Human skeleton -- Juvenile literature.