YOUR BRILLIANT BRAIN

An informal tour of the major bits and bobs that do the “thinky thing” in our heads and elsewhere.

There’s a lot going on in that “squidgy, pink lump of matter sitting snug inside your skull,” and Bunting makes a brave bid to connect it all, from smell to sleep to specific cranial organs and sites. He gives googly eyes to his racially diverse cast of humans, as well as cartoon images of the brain and its individual parts (and the occasional hamster or kitty). Bunting roams from the “gristly ice-cream cone” brain stem to the far reaches of the peripheral nervous system, touching on senses, facial expressions, types of memory, feelings, stages of sleep, and other mental functions and activities. Along with nods to what we have yet to learn about all of these things, such as why we sleep and why many people sneeze when they look toward the sun, he also tucks in good advice about how to keep brains safe and active before closing with the wholesome observation that there’s no such thing as a “normal” brain, since each is one of a kind.

Solidly informative and laced with whimsical visual touches.