Have you ever considered what happens to food after you swallow it? Wonder no more, as Seymour Simon turns his considerable science- writing skills to answering that question. A clear explanation follows food from ingestion to elimination, tracking its passage through the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum. Full-page color endoscopic photographs, x-rays, and computer-generated images give visual access to the internal landscape, including bacterial plaque, stomach mucus, and a dissected pancreas. The author offers concise and comprehensible information, while generating a high level of interest (“The inner lining of the small intestine is about 2,700 square feet, . . . almost the size of a basketball court.”) in a perfect book for medical and science buffs, or any kid with the guts to face the graphic details of their inner workings. (Ages 8–12)

Why is it important tochew your food?

Can you guess how long it takes for food to travel through your body?

Could you possibly have twenty feet of small intestines?

Where does that bad-smelling gas come from?

Your digestive system is out of sight and out of mind -- until things don't go right. Then you may wonder how these important organs work!

You'll find the answers in Seymour Simon's smooth, well-organized, and fascinating introduction to the digestive system. He explains how it works twenty-four hours a day, turning pizza, sandwiches, milk, and other food into energy and nutrients and waste. Striking photographs on every spread show how major organs including the stomach and intestines move food through your body, and how, eventually, waste is eliminated.

Guts takes the mystery out of something that happens to everyone, every day, while at the same time sharing a sense of wonder about the human body.