The Beginner's Guide to Animal Autopsy

by Steve Parker, Rob Shone (Illustrator)

Investigates the internal workings of animals, with drawings of dissections and cartoons illustrating how the animals' bodies work, including chapters on invertebrates, insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer of children's and adult's books. He has written more than 300 titles and contributed to or edited another 150.

Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1952, Parker attended Strodes College, Egham and gained a BSc First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Wales, Bangor. He worked as an exhibition scientist at the Natural History Museum, and as editor and managing editor at Dorling Kindersley Publishers, and commissioning editor at medical periodical GP, before becoming a freelance writer in the late 1980s. He is a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Parker is based in Suffolk with his family.

Parker's writing career began with 10 early titles in Dorling Kindersley's multi-award-winning Eyewitness series, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He has since worked for more than a dozen children's book publishers and been shortlisted for, among others, the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize, Times Educational Information Book of the Year, and Blue Peter Book Award.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absolutely fascinating book would have rocked my world had it been around when I was a kid. Thanks to writer Steve Parker and illustrator Rob Shone, we get to rummage around the innards of almost thirty different critters without any death, mess, or lab partners upchucking. As stated on the back cover: NO ANIMAL OR CUDDLY TOY WAS HURT IN THE MAKING OF THIS BOOK.


Yes, Teddy's brain is a jello mold! In order that the illustrations are not so gory or disturbing, subjects are depicted as toys, or those plastic kit/models (think Visible Man) you might have had as a child.

We start off with a comparison between a hippo and a mosquito. Despite the pretty obvious differences, internally the two have more in common than you might think. Both possess a brain, breathing tubes, a pumping heart with flowing blood, muscles, skeletons, sense organs, kidneys, and guts. We then move from worms to mollusks to bugs.



Fins, scales, and feathered friends are next.



With mammals rounding out the chapters.

I learned quite a bit from this one. For instance, I've been pronouncing the word "ratites" as "rat-tights." It's really pronounced ray-teez. (Granted . . . I'm not sure I've ever used this word in conversation, but still . . .) Also - I've been mistaking a bird's crop for its gizzard; two completely different things: the gizzard grinds up food, the crop is essentially a "food storage bag" - If the bird is feeding in a risky or exposed place, it can eat lots very quickly, then get to safety and digest it later. Neat, huh?

And, finally - bats. Oh, so much info contained on just one page. Didja know that nearly ONE QUARTER OF ALL MAMMALS are bats? I sure didn't! AND, how bats sleep upside-down without falling . . . The hanging body weight makes the long, stringlike tendons in the feet pull the claws into a hooked position.

This is a really awesome book that packs a ton of information into only 46 pages. Highly recommended for animal-fans, and curious readers of all ages.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, rather novel take on explaining animal anatomy to kids.