Review of Texas 2x2 List: Brains: Not Just a Zombie Snack

 


Summary:

A zombie chef who has committed to not eating brains decides to pour her energy into sharing scientific facts and information about the body's control center. From facts about how the brain processes information to what brains look like in various other species, this book is filled with fun facts about brains. It is also illustrated beautifully with eye-catching drawings.

Justification:

This book fit all of the criteria needed for this category: it was published in 2021, I had not read it previously, and was on the Texas 2x2 list for 2022. 

Response

Mood

The overall mood of the book is whimsical and light-hearted (it's narrated by a Zombie after all) while sneaking in some interesting facts about brains. The illustrations perfectly align with the mood while being a critical component of the facts conveyed. I found many of the facts interesting, as well as the view point of the zombie chef that liked to snack on brains. This book was a great way to get a lot of information about brains from a fun perspective.

Facts

There were plenty of brain facts and my limited research after reading confirms the facts within the book to be accurate. I learned quite a bit about brains. I'm very intrigued that a whale's brain weighs about 17 pounds. And while the size of the brain is a factor in brain capacity, it's really the wrinkles that reveal how complex a brain is. Mice have fairly smooth brains while humans are wrinkly brained. One thing that I learned, even having studied nutrition for many years, I had not heard before. Did you know that our brains are only about 3% of our bodyweight, but require about 20% of our energy (calories)? We often hear about how to eat for a workout or for a certain size, but we never hear about feeding our brains well.

Illustrations

I did enjoy the illustrations in the book. Not only did the illustrations accurately convey the whimsy and silly of the mood of the book, they also were integral to many of the facts of the book. Little ones in elementary school would particularly love the whole idea and premise.

McAnulty, S., & Rivera, M. (2021). Brains!: Not just a zombie snack. Godwin Books, Henry Holt and Company.

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