Kids book about parasites: WHAT'S EATING YOU?

By Cory Doctorow at 12:35 am Sunday, Dec 20

The publishers of What's Eating You?: Parasites -- The Inside Story were kind enough to send me a copy of this science picture book for young readers. This is exactly the kind of book I loved as a kid, full of gross and interesting facts about the incredible subject of parasites and their life-cycle. The book has loads of great gross-out moments (rabbit fleas leaving behind poo for their babies to feed on when they hatch from eggs) but quickly moves into the bizarre and wonderful ways that parasites manipulate their hosts (heron tapeworms infect stickleback fish, then turn the fish an easy-to-spot orange and cause them to swim to the surface, where the herons can eat them), the best being the Sacculina sea-crab parasite, which "grows tentacles into every single part of the crab's body, even its brain, to control everything it does...It doesn't breed, but rears Sacculina's babies instead...even male crabs."

Wittily illustrated with simple art, and written in a humorous and engaging style, this is a great kids' science book, and would be a wonderful accompaniment to an afternoon spent with a magnifying glass in the park, or online with a search-engine.

What's Eating You?: Parasites -- The Inside Story