Product Description

This is an outstanding guide to the human body from one of the world's great illustrators! Ever wondered how we breathe, or why? Or what happens to broccoli once your teeth have finished with it? Or how your eyes turn at the same time and in the same direction? Most of us don't stop to think about the countless everyday tasks our bodies perform automatically while we get on with our lives. And yet of all the complex things we encounter as we go through life, our bodies are probably the most remarkable of all...Explore everything from bones to bronchioles, noses to neurons in this clear, comprehensive and utterly engaging guide to the human body from award-winning author-illustrator David Macaulay, creator of the bestselling "The New Way Things Work". David Macaulay's research took several years, during which he sat in on anatomy classes, dissections and numerous operations. "The New Way Things Work" has enjoyed phenomenal global success, selling millions of copies worldwide, spending fifty weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list, and being translated into dozens of languages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13926 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-07
• Released on: 2008-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Amazon.com Review
In this comprehensive and entertaining resource, David Macaulay reveals the inner workings of the human body as only he could. In order to present this complicated subject in an accurate and entertaining way, he put in years of research. He sat in on anatomy classes, dissections, and even reached inside the rib cages of two cadavers to compare their spleen sizes. He observed numerous surgeries, including a ten-hour procedure where a diseased pancreas was removed, as well as one where a worn-out old knee was replaced by a brand new one. This hands-on investigation gives Macaulay a unique perspective to lead his readers on a visual journey through the workings of the human body.

The seven sections within the book take us from the cells that form our foundation to the individual systems they build. Each beautifully illustrated spread details different aspects of our complex structure, explaining the function of each and offering up-close glimpses, unique cross-sections and perspectives, and even a little humor along the way. This one-of-a-kind book can serve as a reference for children, families, teachers, and anyone who has questions about how his or her body works. When readers see how David Macaulay builds a body and explains the way it works, they will come away with a new appreciation of the amazing world inside them.

Amazon Exclusive: Macaulay's Sketches for The Way We Work
(CLICK on Images to Enlarge)

Explore author-artist David Macaulay's creative imagination at work in this collection of intriguing early sketches for the book. Each drawing--which is rendered in colored pencils-- lays out the story of a different system of the body through surprising shifts of scale, color, texture, the insertion of figures, and other intriguing spatial relationships on the page.

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 6 Up—An ambitious undertaking even for Macaulay, this volume tackles the human body in the author's usual style. Divided into seven sections that connect related systems, the book covers cellular structure at the atomic scale, DNA, and metabolism; respiration and circulation; digestion and elimination; the nervous and endocrine systems; the immune system and fighting infections; the skeleton, musculature, and movement; and reproduction. Macaulay combines a detailed description with frequently whimsical, yet very informative, color diagrams to illustrate the body's functions. At times challenging due to the nature of the topic (e.g., cellular chemistry, nerve impulses), the text incorporates the same subtle humor found in the artwork to enhance the book's appeal without sacrificing its utility. As Macaulay shies away from no topic in his frank, scientific discussions, the result is a very complete description of the "mechanical" aspect of human anatomy that is at once enlightening, entertaining, and a visual delight.—Jeffrey A. French, formerly at Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Willowick, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Many years in the making, Macaulay’s latest work follows the same format as his groundbreaking best-seller, The Way Things Work (1988). Here, Macaulay shifts his focus from modern machinery to the infinitely more complex workings of the human body. The single, holistic subject makes this title far more ambitious than its predecessor, in which each spread was devoted to a particular device. In The Way We Work, every page builds on a previous spread: there is a clear progression from atom to whole organism, but in most cases, readers will need background context to orient themselves as they move through the anatomical subjects, which close with reproduction and birth. As with The Way Things Work, this book’s audience will include adults. In fact, older readers who have previously encountered the science concepts are likely to glean the most from the text’s brief, technical explanations; students seeking a basic understanding of topics such as cellular reproduction will find this much less accessible. As always, though, Macaulay’s artwork is a marvel. From microscopic views to head-to-toe, skeletal structures, the colored-pencil and watercolor images are filled with whimsy. Some pictures are visual metaphors: the respiratory system is shown as a giant, looping roller coaster, for example. Other touches are simply playful and wry: tourists ride a rubber raft through the small intestines; angels support strands of colon that frame a landscape reminiscent of a Renaissance masterpiece. The powerful, illuminating images will ignite curiosity and inspire awe over the magnificent connections that make up the human body. Grades 7-12. --Gillian Engberg

Customer Reviews

Anatomy and Physiology in an easy to digest form. A nurses perspective.
I am a nurse and also a student currently working on my masters. During the course of my degree I have of course had to learn anatomy (body structures) and physiology (body functions). The one thing that I have always had issue with was the way even my very expensive books for school seemed to lack in any really good illustrations. I am a visual learner and I really appreciate the clarity of a good illustration.

What David Macaulay has done here with this book "The way WE work" is to look at the body from the viewpoint of an engineer and illustrator. Mr Macaulay is the mastermind of the very popular The way things work. He has brought those skills to the human body. I appreciate the very clear and thoughtful way he portrays different body components and how they all work together and eventually quit working.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a visual learner or needs to really have a unique perspective for a project. This book is great for any grade school student to any college student. It will probably not replace your need to get the expensive A&P books, however. It will augment your current library though and that in itself is wonderful.

Highly recommended!

Expected better from Macaulay
As a fan of David Macaulay's The Way Things Work book and videos, I was expecting better from this book.

The content is presented in good depth. Compared to many other kid-friendly books on human body, this book's approach of understanding the funtions of the systems and organ starting from celluar level (and molecular level) is very helpful to any kid who is curious to understand the "why"s of human physiology. Unfortunately, the explanations are often short-changed.

Macaulay's previous book had much better illustrations that assisted explanation. This book's illustrations often touch only tangential topics, missing the crux of the topic that most needed an illustration to aid the explanation. I am sorry to say that illustrations seem to be chosen for the ease of the illustrator, and where complexity really needed an illustation for better explanation, the book instead relies on verbose exaplanations, that are often insufficient. The language is often not kid-friendly - the expected target audience.

I find the book useful to arouse interest in human anatomy and physiology, and to frame the content to cater to the inquisiveness of a "why" kid who otherwise finds human anatomy and physiology less than intriguing. It needs to be used in combination with other books/websites/videos that contain better explanations of the matter.

The book comes across as a good first attempt, but a rushed job. I wish Macaulay would revise this book soon, or even better, supplement with multimedia illustrations or videos.

Impressive information, less impressive images
The anticipation for this book made me want to buy it right away, and I pre-ordered it on amazon. It arrived and I was super enthused about the cover, and the size of this book. However, once you open it the images fade a bit in impressiveness. The writing, research, metaphors used by Macaulay are very original and the organization of the book from microscopic to traveling around the body effective. However, the information fades with the dubious pencil colorings of the book. Compared to the contrast that the cover offers, the inside illustrations have soft, sometimes difficult to discern images. I was really buying the book for the illustrations, and I have to say that in the end they didn't completely impress me.