Your Brain Is a Lump of Goo

Idan Ben-Barak

Christopher Nielsen

A & U Children’s, 2024

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781761180156

Sitting safely inside your skull, behind your eyes so you can’t see it is a pineapple-sized lump of goo – your brain. And while everyone else also has a brain, and theirs does many of the things yours does, yours is unique and is the part of you that makes you, you. 

Idan Ben-Barak has a unique way of introducing young readers to the various parts of their body – Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You – as well as other topics like the origins of life on Earth and microbes amongst others and this is no exception. Using a mix of clever illustrations, well-chosen language and layout young readers learn about some of the things their brain does and why it is the most essential part of them so they need to protect -cue lesson on the importance of wearing a helmet- and the new suggested protocols for concussion in sports.  The continuing reference to the pineapple adds humour and, all in all, this is a very readable, very accessible introduction to this vital organ, and even moreso if your curriculum has a focus on teaching students about how they learn.