Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body

If you enjoy David Macaulay's detailed, illustrated tours of architecture in Castle, Cathedral, or Pyramid or how he visually explains the intricacies of machines in The Way Things Work, you won't want to miss this book in which he explores the just-as-impressive world inside the human body. Even if you think you have no interest in the subject, you can't help but be drawn in by the detailed and imaginative illustrations, some of which resemble detailed anatomical drawings, and others with whimsical "takes" on the various systems such as comparing the blood vessels to a theme park ride where oxygen molecules jump on and off of red blood cells. The 7 chapters explore cells and tissues, breathing and the circulatory system, the digestive system, the nervous system, the immune system and the reproductive system (quite tastefully done, I might add). Each page is dominated by Macaulay's lively colored pencil illustrations displaying body structures from a variety of imaginative viewpoints. After you pore over the picture, a paragraph or two on explains the inner workings of the subject. I love the illustrations of enlarged body structures with a small walkway or railing in the foreground where people are standing and staring. These define the book as a whole rather well; it's not an anatomy atlas or encyclopedia. It's a very visual tour through the systems of the human body that shows readers "how it works" and what those amazing systems at work inside of us would look like if we could really shrink ourselves and take a field trip. 336 pgs, hc. - Jess