Super Simple Biology

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Really awesome biology text designed to educate and engage young readers. Has plenty of bright photos and diagrams with easy to understand explanations. A definite must have for your child's supplementary reading.

What a wonderful resource for older children. SuperSimple Biology has a plethora of science broken down into simple to understand sections of information.

SuperSimple Biology has some great graphics to help understand some higher biological information. The book does a fabulous job of stating the scientific method and data collection, along with biology topics. I would buy this book as a supplement to my biology classroom to have the added visuals some students need to process the topics.

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Being a huge science buff, I often find myself engaged in textbooks surrounding various scientific topics. SuperSimple Biology by DK is a simple, yet comprehensive book that covers many realms within the scientific world. Starting with some scientific methodology including an overview of scientific procedures and measurements, precision and accuracy, SuperSimple Biology introduces key concepts to young readers eager to learn. The book covers many topics including “what is life?”, an introduction to cell biology, including cell anatomy and processes, as well as digging deeper into enzymes and other proteins. The concept of plants is then discussed in abundant detail focusing on photosynthesis and plant structures.

Next, some information surrounding the human body is discussed where nutrition, absorption of food and digestive enzymes are briefly featured. Specifically, my favorite part of this book is when the authors discuss “Animal Transport”. Here, many diagrams are given of the circulatory system and lymphatic system. These sections lead to a section on the nervous system in which an overview is given about the neuron (i.e. cells of the nervous system) as well as how the nervous system works so that we can live and experience each and every day. Having a degree in neuroscience, I specifically enjoyed this section and overall thought it was very comprehensive to new learners. A section on hormones is next, followed by some information about the reproductive system and how reproduction works in sexual and asexual species.

The book then continues with a discussion surrounding DNA and genetics, as well as some modern information about available biotechnology in the field. Specifically, in this section I really enjoyed how they described genetics in an easy, but understandable way, as I know this topic specifically was a challenge to me and many of my classmates going through school.

Also, in this section we see that evolution is mentioned which I believe to be a fundamental concept for all budding scientists. Finally, we see that the book concludes with a section on ecology followed by some information about the general health of individuals. Specifically, there are a few pages dedicated to disease in which pathogens and viruses are briefly discussed, both of which are very important topics given the current situation. Vaccinations are also included amongst this discussion.

Overall, I thought this book was very visually appealing, as well as informative for young learners. The only suggestion, I can make was that I wish all information concerning plants was put together in one section versus being broken up into multiple sections (i.e. the plant transport section was separate from the plant anatomy and functions). This partitioning could also be done for the pages dedicated to the human body in which all the systems are found in one section versus spread out over the various pages. Otherwise, I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone in the high school grades (or any young adult/adult) who would want to learn more about science and its various topics.

I highly recommend to the parents out there reading this, that they buy this book for their young, bright minds as I think it is a great resource for scientific learning!