Inside Me

How do you get better?

Your nose is running and you do not feel quite like yourself. Inside Me: My Tiny Helpers is a first science book about germs and the immune system, told as one gentle story. It follows a single germ, from the moment it slips inside you to the moment your body's tiny helpers clear it away.

Page by page, a child meets the team, and each one's superpower. The neutrophil, always hungry, that gobbles the germ right up. The dendritic cell, the messenger, that carries a clue all the way to the lymph node. The T cells, little detectives, that learn the germ and can find it wherever it hides. And the clever B cells, that make tiny Y-shaped tags called antibodies, each one shaped to fit that one germ like a puzzle piece. It is real immunology, dendritic cells, lymph nodes, T cells, B cells and antibodies, told as one warm read-aloud story.

When the germ is cleared away, some of the helpers stay behind and remember it, so your body is ready if it ever comes again. A vaccine works the same way, showing your body a safe practice germ so it is ready ahead of time.

What's inside:

• A first look at germs, the immune system, and the cells that keep you well, for curious children ages 2 to 5
• Real immunology, accurate to the science, told as one read-aloud story
• Soft, hand-illustrated art in a warm pastel palette
• A gentle, reassuring answer to why you feel poorly: your body already knows just what to do

Written and illustrated by Leah Bury, PhD, a cell biologist and science illustrator, with immunology by Aimee Pugh Bernard, PhD. Leah made this book to show her own children the science of the world inside them.

Inside Me is a first science series for toddlers, looking closer at the body one book at a time. This is Book 4.