by Janie
Fig. 1. Book cover. Source. Frontispiece.
Here's a fun way to get little ones interested in microbiology. In Wonderful World of the Small: A First Book of Microbiology, Lindsey Millar and Vivien Sárkány introduce the diversity of microbes on Earth. They present an anthropomorphized cast of different types of microbes – bacteria, algae, diatoms, yeasts, archaea, nematodes, viruses, amoebas, fungi, paramecia, and lastly, slime molds – and highlight their unique traits.
Each double-paged spread is full of playful illustrations, info tidbits, jokes, and speech bubbles that offer a lighthearted introduction to microbial innovations, including the bacterial flagellum, the viral capsid, the hat-thrower fungus' launching of spores, a paramecium's contractile vacuole, and more.
Fig. 2. The paramecium pages from the book. Source: Wonderful World of the Small.
It's a heartwarming and educational picture book to get kids curious about the microscopic lives that inhabit our world.
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