Germ Zappers by Fran Balkwill and Mic Rolph, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Press, $8.95, ISBN 0879695986
PARENTS wearied by the bizarre exploits of Metal Greymon, Goku or Bubbles
(don鈥檛 ask) might try presenting their embattled child with Germ
Zappers. This nifty little book is in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press鈥檚
Enjoy Your Cells series. It showcases home-grown heroes鈥攖he cells of the
immune system.
It鈥檚 presented with brilliant simplicity: the drawings are accurate, the text
is a doddle to understand. Nor can you lose with plot lines like
these鈥攎urder by squashing, macrophages as super rubbish collectors,
neutrophils engaged on spy-like 鈥渄eadly missions鈥�. It is full of inspired
touches such as 鈥淭op of the Pox鈥�, a parade of all the usual viral suspects that
has warts rubbing shoulders with diarrhoea.
Advertisement
Joshua, six-and-a-half, read it with relish. 鈥淎 germ,鈥� he told me afterwards,
鈥渋s a small thing that has quite a lot of power, really, and could make you
very, very sick. Germs are bacteria or viruses. Cells in our body can kill them.
There鈥檚 a special sort of cell in your belly that makes acid and destroys
anything suspicious like a germ. I also thought the natural killer cell was
powerful and cool. It鈥檚 funny-looking鈥攂all-shaped with bumps鈥攁nd it
sneaks up and sticks holes in the membrane of an infected cell.鈥�
See? Germ Zappers is every bit as weird as Dragon Ball Z鈥攁nd
there鈥檚 no merchandise attached to it. Go for it.