Ready-To-Read Super Gross, baits the STEM hook for 2^nd and 3^rd graders

Teach a child a foreign language and the first things that they’ll remember is the profanity, slang or pickup lines. In other news: kids who only study one year of Spanish make the world’s worst interpreters.  As a testament to that, it’s been more than 25 years and I can still say “you’re very cute” in Norwegian. The gross facts from reference books, those strange blurbs about animals that they’ll never see are always the first ones to get read. How-To-Read Super Gross is a book series that leans into that tendency and gives it a big, yucky hug. What’s In Your Body? is the big font combination of photographs and illustrations and witty dialogue that emerging readers crave.

They crave it because those second and third-graders will be able to read it by themselves. They’re big kids who can read without assistance but require the correct books that enable them to do so. They’ll also love it because the book talks about farts, pooping, burping, stinky toilets, and other things that make up the backbone to Captain Underpants.

But it’s OK because it does all of this in the name of STEM. This will leave some kids repeating gross facts one too many times but will plant those long-term seeds in some kids that’ll reap benefits when they enter the job field in 17 years. Those seven or eight-year-old kids learning about pus and that magical white gunk will one day be the doctors who’ll be taking care of you in 2040. It’s the circle of life, just like The Lion King taught us, but this time with doctors who were inspired by that silly book that introduced them to biology in 2023.

The curious kids will laugh at some pages and share it with their friends. The smart, curious kids will think about the things happening in their bodies, realize it’s not too gross and perhaps read more about it. Demystifying a subject is crucial to making it a learning opportunity. It kind of falls into the ‘no question is a bad question’ school of thought, but in this case, it centers it around our bodies.

Super Gross, What’s In Your Body is a Level Two, Ready-To-Read book. The books in this series are awesome and are easily identifiable to those kids who are in that reading level. It’s a book series that those who aren’t in the category strive to be able to read and provides a safe zone for those who in a certain level. The five levels are denoted by different colors and are a great way to motivate kids to “level up” or challenge themselves to improve a skill set that’ll really pay dividends in their school work.

This series is hardback and rectangular, which has a big kid feel and appearance. It’s a very subtle thing that will make kids prouder when they’re able to read it. Sure, it’s got jokes and funny things inside, but it’s all about science, so it’s win/win. There’s a glossary at the front of the book that defines icky terms in ways that those ages read and understand. The contents break things down into three main areas and there’s a craft at the end of the book.

What’s In Your Body? is the kind of book that you’ll wish your teenage kids had the opportunity to read when they were younger. The Super Gross series of books has other entries like What’s That Smell?, Going Buggy!, Icky Sticky Slime!, and Pull My Finger! that are probably as entertaining as this one. I was just kidding about that last one, but it’s a title that my generation would’ve read with rapt attention and perfect timing back in the day.

Ready-To-Read Super Gross, What’s In Your Body? is by Ximena Hastings with illustrations by Alison Hawkins and is available from A Ready-to-Ready Book, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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