The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah

Written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Acorn (Scholastic)

978-1-338-89504-9

64 pp.

Ages 5-7

October 2024

 

Our intrepid inside-the-body explorers from The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion and The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe are back to help another animal with a body ailment.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Sanjay and Viv, the children who can shrink down and go inside animals to help them feel better, discover that the cheetah has a leg cramp. Explaining it as a muscle that is stuck and will not relax, the two grab their gear and head out to meet Zora the cheetah. Zora explains how she'd been running when her leg started to hurt, and she had to stop. (This may be familiar to many young readers.) They carry her to their Care Lab and head inside Zora for a "little poke."

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Inside Zora, Sanjay and Viv pass through the fur, the skin and into the muscle, all appropriately depicted. The kids reach the muscle, described as made of bigger and smaller ropes and surrounded by a sleeve (connective tissue), and locate where the ropes are bunched up i.e., the cramp. With the help of a few nifty tools, they repair the muscle and head out. As a pain-free Zora returns to the wild, they advise her to rest, and stay hydrated.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

With a couple of information pages called "Fun Facts about Muscles," describing how muscles work in our bodies, including the use of terms like skeletal muscles, fibers and connective tissue, Mitali Banerjee Ruths informs while telling a sweet story about kids who help others. She's got a great blend of animals, kids, compassion and STEM to make the Inside Scouts a valuable and charming addition to Acorn's early reader books. And by focusing on an injury or ailment that any child might experience, some common and others less so, Mitali Banerjee Ruths's Inside Scouts will help kids understand and be comforted.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

The illustrations by New England's Francesca Mahaney have the right chemistry of biology and art. She keeps her shapes bold and distinct and surprisingly defined as necessary for a book that looks at the body structures. As a primer for health and the body, The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah shows the strong collaboration between Francesca Mahaney's art and the story of Mitali Banerjee Ruths, working like the body itself: distinct parts supporting and integrating.

 

I don't know if there will be more books in the series but, with plenty of injuries and body functions to delve into, the Inside Scouts would have heaps of helping to do. And by helping an assortment of animals, Sanjay and Viv are helping young children understand their own bodies and what can go wrong without taking them into circumstances like hospitals and doctors' offices which have the potential to cause anxiety. With these characters just trying to do good and using fabulous tech to do it, children get a playful but informative look at their own bodies.

 

 • • • • • • •

 

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah (2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (The Inside Scouts #2)

Written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Acorn (Scholastic)

978-1-338-89501-8

64 pp.

Ages 5–7

June 2024

 

Sanjay and Viv, the Inside Scouts who can shrink down and go inside animals to help them feel better, are on their second case with a giraffe who cannot eat because her tummy feels sick. So, to discover what is stuck in her gut, the two friends approach Sabeena the giraffe to see if they can help.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

After a few questions about when Sabeena started to feel ill–after eating her lunch of leaves–the two learn from an embarrassed Sabeena that, in addition to not wanting to eat, she can't poop. Thankful for the info, the Inside Scouts suit up and jump into her mouth to travel down the esophagus into her stomach. (For details about the digestive system, there is a "Fun Facts about the Gut" that describes the parts (including how to pronounce them) and its workings.)

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

But the stomach looks clear so the two raft down into the intestines with its walls with "pink fingers" where they find a ball of thorns, undoubtedly the cause of Sabeena's discomfort. With a blast tool and a net, they trap the offending mass, moving themselves back out with sticky grips until Sanjay and Viv are burped out of Sabeena. 

Inside Scouts go inside together.

When animals need help,

we help them get better! (p. 54)

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

When Mitali Banerjee Ruths, MD, introduced The Inside Scouts series earlier this year with The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, I was hooked. She based her story on two friends, both of colour, who worked with animals, health, and tech to do good. The stories are light, perfect for an early reader, but informative, drawing readers in with their rhyming superhero chants, their internal adventures, and wild tech. Coupled with Francesca Mahaney's digital art, the stories are colourful, a little whimsical–see Sabeena shyly "going" behind a bush once her gut is working again–and bold while never complicated.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

With Sanjay and Viv around to help explain personal health issues, young readers will never need to be embarrassed about asking questions to help them understand their bodies. With Book 3, The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, set for a fall release, it looks like there will be more learning happening, inside and out.

 

 • • • • • • •

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (February 2024)
The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (June 2024)
The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah (October 2024)

Club Microbe

Written and illustrated by Elise Gravel

Translated by Montana Kane

Drawn & Quarterly

978-1-77046-702-6

56 pp.

Ages 4+

April 2024

 

First there was The Mushroom Fan Club (2018). Then there was The Bug Club (2021). (Soon there will be Disgusting Critters: A Creepy Crawly Collection.) And now the genius of Elise Gravel takes us to the microscopic level to introduce those germs which can harm us and all the microbes that help keep us healthy, make our food, and do so much more.

From Club Microbe, written and illustrated by Elise Gravel

From a quirky definition of microbes, Elise Gravel introduces us to different groups such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, protists, and algae. She discusses their sizes, where they can live, and the many fabulous shapes they take. Much of the text involves bacteria and viruses and, though they can cause illness, their roles in helping us with our health and the environment is well noted.

From Club Microbe, written and illustrated by Elise Gravel

I especially appreciate Elise Gravel's notes about how we can keep safer from the illnesses they cause, and she does it with humour and wisdom, mentioning hand-washing, vaccinations and antibodies, and foods that promote gut health.

You know I'm a big fan of germs, but I'm not a big fan of the ones that can make me sick.

There is much science embedded in Elise Gravel's report of microbes. She speaks to the use of a microscope to view them and never avoids using their Latin (scientific) names. And she peppers her straightforward text with numerous quirky facts including about a 150-million-year-old bacterium, van Leeuwenhoek's discovery, and even an experiment how to grow some on bread.

From Club Microbe, written and illustrated by Elise Gravel

As with all Elise Gravel's books, it's her artwork that completes the stories. And while many bacteria and viruses can look creepy, especially when we know of those that can do harm, like coronavirus, Rabies lyssavirus, and papillomavirus, she is able to keep her illustrations authentic–there is no dispute about identifying COVID with its red-orange spike proteins–but to also make them less than scary, with eyes and sometimes little teeth. And by placing them in the context of similarly anthropomorphized intestines and the brain, and a world of familiar situations, Elise Gravel delights, entertains, and teaches. 

 

There's a lot of learning that can happen here, from the role of bacteriophages to the use of microbes in making bread and cheese, and it's aimed at young children who are able to comprehend that there are microscopic organisms that impact our lives, even if we can't see them. We've already got our own Club Microbes going on in our bodies, so why not help little ones become more familiar with their mutualistic tiny organisms and those that contribute to our worlds. It's a membership we already support or can try to keep at bay. With Elise Gravel's Club Microbe, we'll know even better how they work.

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (The Inside Scouts #1)

Written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Acorn (Scholastic)

978-1-338-89498-1

64 pp.

Ages 4–7

RL 1.0

February 2024 

 

Sanjay and Viv are the Inside Scouts, and they have the superpower to shrink super small and go inside animals to make them feel better. In this first book in this illustrated early reader (RL 1.0) series, the kids must help a lion who is not feeling his best.

Inside Scouts!

Always on call!

To fix big things,

we get super small! (p. 20)

 

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Ruslan  is a lion who wants to run and play with his cubs, but he is feeling far too tired to do so.  Using some very cool tech, the kids show Ruslan a leak in his heart. Gearing up, the two go in through his nose–though they must be careful not to tickle the sensitive lion–and follow a vein to the heart.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

The Inside Scouts show young readers how the heart is made up of four rooms, with doors called valves that allow movement of the blood. Though the story is appended with "Fun Facts about the Heart" that describes the pumping of the heart and uses terms like circulates, arteries, veins and chambers, the illustrations are done at such large scale that the anatomical features of the heart are not readily discernible so even the squeamishest of children will have no problems with the artwork. But they will have a sweet introduction to how our hearts work and how those with poorly-functioning ones might feel.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Not only will the Inside Scouts help young children understand their bodies, but the series will also make them think about illness and how our behaviours may be impacted by health issues. Whether it's a lion that cannot play with his cubs because of a leaky heart, or a giraffe with an upset tummy or a cheetah with a leg cramp (Books 2 and 3 are out later this year), the Inside Scouts teach and encourage empathy for those who may be suffering.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

The tale of the kindly lion with a big heart, albeit a leaky one, will delight young readers with its mixture of humour–such as the kids getting sneezed out of the lion's nose with slime–learning and story. Mitali Banerjee Ruths, who also writes The Party Diaries series for the Branches early chapter book imprint of Scholastic, has written a text that is perfect for the earliest readers but challenges them with more sophisticated words in the "Fun Facts about the Heart" section. There is also an activity (Draw Your Own "I Am Kind" Badge) and encouragement to write a story about being kind. With artwork by Filipino-American Francesca Mahaney, who has done a fabulous job of illustrating what could have been a perplexing topic for young children, The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion becomes an accessible but bold adventure of colour, shape, and story, and one that will be a hit with readers, teachers and parents.

 

• • • • • • •

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (February 2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (June 2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah (October 2024)

It's My Body!

Written and illustrated by Elise Gravel

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-9650-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

September 2022

Elise Gravel has always used her quirky illustrative way to entertain while teaching STEM, from her Disgusting Critters series to The Mushroom Fan Club and even her early graphic novel series Arlo & Pips. But in recent years, Elise Gravel's picture books have shown a proclivity for encouraging young readers to be respectful of self and others by demonstrating that we are more alike than our differences might suggest. In It's My Body!, Elise Gravel reminds us that our bodies are our own, to love and appreciate, even as they are different in shape, colour, ability and how we feel about them.

From It's My Body! by Elise Gravel

If we're going to talk about our bodies, we first have to recognize all the different kinds there are. Brilliantly, Elise Gravel gives us dozens of bodies, all unrecognizable as people but all representative of the myriad of human body types. Some have two legs, some do not. Some have ears, and some do not. Some are tiny, some thin, some pear-shaped, and others stocky. Some move by wheels and some with canes. And they can all do stuff.

From It's My Body! by Elise Gravel

What we choose to do with our bodies is up to us but Elise Gravel recommends that we honour them by keeping them healthy and happy with good food, activity, cleanliness, fresh air and rest. And she reminds us that "Nobody should touch your body in ways that you don't like" and we should respect that for others as well.

From It's My Body! by Elise Gravel

Without belabouring any one issue like inappropriate touch or hygiene, illness or diversity, disability or body positivity, Elise Gravel gives it all to us. She reminds us to be kind to ourselves and others and to appreciate our differences as well as our similarities. With her one-of-a-kind monsters, Elise Gravel makes us feel worthy and included, no matter what we can do, feel or look like. That will help children with the ideation of self-esteem, while also shepherding them to good mental and physical health. After all, as Elise Gravel's green-and-yellow-spotted character reminds us:

Thank you, BODY. Without you, I would be a NO-BODY!

The Cow Said Boo!

Written by Lana Button

Illustrated by Alice Carter

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-216-5

28 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2021

The cow says, "Moo." Every child knows that. But what does it sound like with a stuffy nose? Disastrously, this cow learns that it's "Boo!"

From The Cow Said Boo! by Lana Button, illus. by Alice Carter

Judging by the falling leaves and the ripe pumpkins on the ground, the cow has caught a cold in the autumn. Clutching her tissue box and stumbling around in misery, she crashes into a clothesline from which a white sheet falls and shrouds the poorly cow.

From The Cow Said Boo! by Lana Button, illus. by Alice Carter

When she approaches the other farm animals–a goat, a cat, a horse, a rooster and a pig–at breakfast, her "Boo!" and sheet-covered form sends them into a tizzy, convinced the farm is haunted.

Saddened, the cow goes off by herself to rest and recuperate. But as the other animals sleep, except for the infirmed cow, a fox sneaks onto the farm. Knowing she must do something to save her friends, she uses her altered voice and sheet disguise to scare it away, and become the hero they needed, even if she says, "Boo!"

From The Cow Said Boo! by Lana Button, illus. by Alice Carter

Lana Button gives us a story in which a difficulty becomes a blessing, reminding young readers that face-value is just that. Sure, the cow looked like a ghost and frightened her friends with her nasally voice but she used that to her advantage to help her farm pals in the end. Ultimately, they appreciate her efforts, cheering her and even nursing her back to health, though they all catch their own colds and speak with transformed voices. (They would be wise to follow the illustrated instructions on the back end-papers for scaring away colds by washing hands.) Lana Button gives us some silliness and some wisdom, a great way for young children to learn important lessons like how to keep colds at bay and not being too quick to judge.

Ottawa's Alice Carter created her art with coloured pencils, watercolour and digital media to give The Cow Said Boo! the simplicity and mischievousness that speaks to young children. They know about getting colds and how it feels but Alice Carter makes it more goofy than ridiculous and definitely less miserable than the common cold. From her blue skies and sickly yellow green fields–yes, sickly is a colour–there's some subtle messaging but the animals are the stars with their brightly-hued coats and cartoonish faces and forms. Moreover, because young children are familiar with animals and their sounds, especially on farms–even if they've never visited a rural community–Alice Carter's depictions of Lana Button's characters will make them smile.

The cow may have had the misfortune to get a cold but she had the good fortune to turn it into a lucky break for her friends, even if they'll be in bed sneezing and coughing soon enough too.