Starred Review ALA Booklist (Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 1996)

Starred Review Make a fist. This is about the size of your heart. Sixty to one hundred times every minute your heart muscles squeeze together and push blood around your body though tubes called blood vessels. Using the same format as Simon's series on astronomy, this well-designed book introduces the human circulatory system: the heart, the blood, the arteries and veins, the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide, the functions of various blood cells, and heart problems and their solutions. The text is succinct and direct, making the details understandable without losing the sense that the whole process of circulation is strange and wonderful. On most spreads, the text appears on the left in fairly large type, while the illustrations appear on the facing pages. These often striking pictures include many computer-enhanced photographs as well as diagrams and highly enlarged images made possible by electron microscopes. Handsome and well-conceived in every way, this book provides an excellent introduction to its subject. (Reviewed July 1996)

Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

With the aid of computer-enhanced photographs taken with an electron microscope, Simon explains the system of blood vessels, the role of blood, lungs, and the heart, and a few of the problems that can develop in the circulatory system. The text, layout, diagrams, and photographs work together to make an eye-catching and useful book.

Kirkus Reviews

Make a fist. This is about the size of your heart,'' Simon (Spring in America, p. 232, etc.) begins, and with this simple, concrete image he introduces the wonders of the human heart, circulatory system, and blood to a picture-book audience. Elsewhere, even abstract ideas become comprehensible, e.g., the average human body contains about twenty-five trillion red blood cells, orhundreds of times more blood cells than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.'' Stunning full-color photos appear on every page, many taken inside the human body with scanners, X rays, and other devices, and then computer-enhanced. The same science savvy and enthusiasm that has made Simon's titles on the universe so popular has been turned inward to uncover extraordinary facts about the human body. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8+)"

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5--Simon approaches the human heart as he approached outer space and oceans: as an adventure to be explored. As always, the full-page, full-color photographs are spectacular, and the text is crisp and full of detail. In a conversational yet instructive style, the author presents young readers with fascinating information that will almost certainly spur them on to read more. Topics include types of blood vessels, coronary bypass surgery, strokes, and anatomy of the heart. There is no index, but since each two-page spread clearly addresses a specific topic, one isn't necessary.--Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, NY