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  • The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins
  • Elizabeth Bush
Newquist, H. P. The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins. Houghton, 2012. [160p] illus. with photographs Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-547-31584-3 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-547-82269-3 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-9.

With its creepy subtitle, blood-splatter effects, and introduction focused on general ickiness, this looks like a parallel to Kyi's Seeing Red (BCCB 7/12), with a dash more traditional nonfiction gravitas. However, Newquist quickly veers from folkways and ritual to science, presenting a curriculum-friendly overview of the history of the way scientists have come to understand what blood is; the circulatory system and how blood interacts with various organs; medical conditions that occur when the system breaks down; comparisons of blood in humans and animals. The penultimate chapter on "the Undead" offers a few sips of vampire lore, but the book wraps up with a return to the more prosaic matter of blood banks and blood donation. Newquist's prose is smooth enough that several chapters could actually function as nonfiction readalouds, while the color illustrations range from historical engravings to electron microscope photos to textbook-style diagrams. No citations are included, but a brief bibliography of books and websites is appended, and an index is forthcoming. If you've ever hankered to see a close-up of a brain afflicted with meningitis, you've come to the right place.

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