Day: February 24, 2009

Brain Books for Kids

your-brain-by-anita-ganeriMy eight year old son just wrapped up his science presentation project for school, a large poster that he’ll share with his class and then judges at the school’s version of a Science Fair. His topic? How the Brain Works.

A great topic, of course! Maybe a tad ambitious (!), but just the sort of question you want kids to ask. So I was excited to show off my Internet skills and get him hooked into some sites to help explain the brain to a growing boy. Paul outlined a bunch of them in his post Brain School.

But none of them did the trick! My son wasn’t particularly interested in them, the explanations and graphics didn’t always seem accessible, and I came away a little frustrated with the state of neuroscience for kids on the internet.

We had better luck at the local library, so I’m detailing the four most useful books below. If there are other books you like, please leave a comment! It would be great to build a resource. And if there is a great Internet site out there that your kid really hooked into, then tell us about that too.

Here are the boosk with Amazon links:

Anita Ganeri (2003). Your Brain. Gareth Stevens Publishing and part of the How Your Body Works series.
-This book was short, with vivid illustrations and language that my son got – it was the one he drew on the most to get the basics down for his presentation.

HP Newquist (2004). The Great Brain Book: An Inside Look at the Inside of Your Head. Scholastic Reference.
-A more encyclopediac book, covering history, evolution, the brain itself, treatment and more. It’s more text oriented, but does have good illustrations. Amazon plugs it for ages 9-12, but the School Library Review says Grade 7 and beyond.

Michael DiSpezio (2004). How Bright Is Your Brain? Amazing Games to Play with Your Mind. Sterling Publishing.
-It gets info across using kid-friendly drawings, but also focuses on activities kids can do to help understand their brains. Definitely some fun ones, and a good way to introduce some ideas about experiments.

Steve Parker (2006). Control Freak: Hormones, The Brain, and the Nervous System. Raintree.
-This book has more photos and focuses on what the brain does. Good stuff on the senses and movement.

Mark Nichter and Global Health

Mark Nichter is a prominent medical anthropologist who teaches at the University of Arizona. In this video Nichter speaks on medical anthropology and health policy. We also get more background on Nichter and his work from colleagues and students.

I am using Mark’s new textbook, Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions, Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter, in my Intro to Med Anth class this semester, and the students have responded quite positively. It’s a relatively short book, so I am able to use it in conjunction with other texts – not the mega intro to all things med anthro that seems to be the norm out there now. I also like the practical/applied focus that he provides throughout the book.

The last chapter, “Toward a Next Generation of Social Science Research,” is the real pay-off after previous sections on both popular health culture and international health policy. That’s where he discusses global health, syndemics, ecosocial epidemiology, local biology, the importance of studying up, biopolitics, and more. Yes, he packs a lot in – but that leaves room for me as the teacher to discuss more general issues and to provide background for the points he is making.

Mark has several recent articles which will likely interest readers:

Coming to Our Senses: Appreciating the Sensorial in Medical Anthropology (2008) in Transcultural Psychiatry

Reconsidering the Placebo Response from a Broad Anthropological Perspective (2009) in Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry with Jennifer Jo Thompson and Cheryl Ritenbaugh

Qualitative Research: Contributions to the Study of Drug Use, Drug Abuse, and Drug Use(r)-Related Interventions (2004) in Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry with Gilbert Quintero, Mimi Nichter, Jeremiah Mock and Sohaila Shakib