HUMAN BODY Learning Lab-book review

“Human Body Learning Lab” by Dr. Betty Choi offers an engaging exploration of the human body for curious kids. Dr. Choi, a pediatrician and mom, provides an easy-to-understand guide, complete with hands-on activities. The book also includes important disclaimers for parents. Written for kids aged 5 to 9, it’s a valuable resource for parents and teachers.

HUMAN BODY

Learning Lab

Take an Inside Tour of How Your Body Works

By Betty Choi, MD

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Human Body Learning Lab is not only a book for parents to read to their kids but an adventure they can explore with their kids.

I can identify with author Dr. Betty Choi. She is a pediatrician and mom who became intrigued with the human body and how it works from reading The Human Body book in her family’s encyclopedia set. So did I. Like me, she went on to become a physician and explained that she wrote this book for all the curious kids who ask her questions. (Similarly, I started writing this blog.)

Head-to-toe teaching

Dr. Choi has produced an easy-to-understand, biologically accurate, visually appealing guide to the human body. From the colorful table of contents to the ending invitation to “Learn More” on the website, Dr. Choi covers the human body from head to toe, and from inside out.

the table of contents

The Learning Lab explains in text and colorful, detailed, clearly labeled drawings the structure and function of the body’s organ systems. The author explains genetics, DNA, the five senses, and the immune system.

how to build a model of DNA

Hands-on learning

Perhaps unique to this book are the hands-on activities that help kids understand what they’ve read. There are 27 of these learning activities, ranging from making models of DNA and a lung, testing the sun’s power, understanding the power of soap, and “How fast can you catch this?”.

Using two plastic bottles and flexible straws, a funnel, and an assortment of craft supplies, kids can make a model illustrating the kidneys. In a partner activity, they try challenging each other, blindfolded, to identify unknown foods by taste and smell only.

how to form sign language letters
examples of the 5 senses

I even learned something. Did you know there are 5 tastes, not just 4? They are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Umami is a Japanese term meaning “savory deliciousness.”

What parents should know

There is a disclaimer that the activities be done with adult supervision. Asses the potential for allergic reactions from the materials used. There is also a general medical disclaimer not to use the book’s information for diagnosis or treatment, rather consult a healthcare professional.

Content Alert: The book addresses reproduction by stating “to make a new baby, male and female reproductive organs work together. A sperm from the testicles combines with an egg from the ovaries.” One of the activities involves making a Play-Dough Embryo. Parents are left to explain how the egg and sperm get together in the first place.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it as a valuable resource for parents and teachers.

According to Amazon, this book is written at a third to seventh-grade level, and parents say this book is appropriate for kids 5 to 9 years old.


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Betty Choi, MD

Dr. Choi also founded the Chalk Academy. She credits many people with helping create this book. Her physician husband worked overtime and children, Isabel and Noah tested each activity. Physician colleagues provided feedback.

The art direction and book design was done by Alethea Morrison. ( I love finding someone whose name is so similar to mine.)

About the project, Dr. Choi wrote

It truly took a village to bring this passion project to life, and I thank God for bringing together many wonderful people.

The book is published by Storey Publishing whose mission is

To serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment.

“Thank you NetGalley and publisher for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.”

Professional Reader 25 Book Reviews

Learn more at the book’s website Human Body Learning.

exploring the HEART of health through books

HUMAN BODY is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org at these affiliate links and you can probably find it at your local library or your child’s school. If they don’t have it, ask them to obtain it.

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We believe bookstores are essential to a healthy culture and they are dedicated to the common good.

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Thanks,

Dr. Aletha

“healing the homeless”-a review of ROUGH SLEEPERS

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder presents the challenges and triumphs of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program in his new book. It gives an insight into the lives of the homeless ‘rough sleepers’, their struggles, and their stories. Primarily focusing on Dr. Jim O’Connell’s dedication, the book uncovers his 30-year journey caring for Boston’s homeless population, battling societal and political neglect, and medical inconsistencies.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder takes us on a virtual ride through the streets of Boston to introduce us to the homeless “rough sleepers” and the people who care for their medical needs. If you care or are simply curious about the homeless people on the streets of your community, you should read this book.

Rough Sleepers:

Dr. Jim O’Connell’s urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people 

by Tracy Kidder

The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program has served thousands of people for over 30 years. Tracy Kidder rode on the program’s outreach van with the director Dr. Jim O’Connell, whose one-year commitment turned into a 30-year mission. Caring for the “rough sleepers”-those who sleep on the sidewalks, doorsteps, and parks of Boston’s streets- wasn’t what he envisioned when he finished his medical residency in 1985.

For five years the author rode along the late-night rounds with the Harvard-educated physician. He learned what the program does and why it matters. Homeless people are often alcoholic, drug addicted, ex-cons, mentally ill, or suffering from serious chronic illnesses. Living on the streets makes it impossible to get the kind of consistent medical care they need.

The homeless tend to distrust outsiders, especially the medical and mental health community. But through patience and persistence, Dr. Jim and the other staff won their trust by treating them as human beings with complicated stories that brought them to the streets and keeps them there.

The narrative reads like a novel as Mr. Kidder tells the backstories of these people shunned and ignored by society, but whom the doctors, nurses, counselors, and therapists treat with dignity and respect. He describes their frustration when the rough sleepers shun the care they offer or relapse after seeking care, as well as the lack of financial support from the political powers.

One rough sleeper, Tony, forms a special bond with Dr. Jim and we learn the most about him. Mr. Kidder relates his story bit by bit to a shocking climax when we learn what drove him to the streets and kept him there long-term.

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Rough Sleepers is not an easy book to read but is equally hard not to read. I found myself cheering for the staff when they get someone off the streets and into a small apartment but grieving when they lose one to disease, violence, or a drug overdose. I am inspired by the perseverance and persistence of Dr. O’Connell and his co-workers in caring for a population of patients for which there is often little positive feedback.

Content warning-this is a true story about people with rough lives. There is candid discussion of drug and alcohol use, medical conditions and treatments, and various types of sexual behaviors.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Professional Reader 25 Book Reviews

Jim O’Connell, M.D.

Dr. O’Connell is the President of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and teaches and writes about care for the homeless. He wrote about his experiences caring for the homeless in, Stories From the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor

Tracy Kidder wrote about another physician, Dr. Paul Farmer.

Mountains Beyond Mountains:

The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World 

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In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most.

Tracy Kidder’s account shows how one person can make a difference through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease.

Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes people’s minds through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.”

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Mr. Kidder won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for

The Soul of A New Machine 

Tracy Kidder’s “riveting” (Washington Post) story of one company’s efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and has become essential reading for understanding the history of the American tech industry.

exploring the HEART of health

You can use the links to learn more about these books, the authors, and the physicians. Watch a video at the Boston program link to learn more about the care they provide. Some are affiliate links that may pay a commission to this blog.

This post’s cover photo is courtesy of Pexels and was shot by photographer Timur Weber.

Please follow this blog by email so you can know when I publish other book reviews and information and inspiration to change your health challenges into health opportunities.

Medical stethoscope and heart on a textured background

Dr Aletha