I was going to use this Science Comics: The Digestive System: A Tour Through Your Guts by Jason Viola for the Bingo Machine category. But I had a hard time finishing the book. Not because it was bad, but because I had little interest in the subject (which is why I tried it. If I could learn something or enjoy it, then I knew it was a good book). But that means I need to concentrate on things, making me take my time to get through. Plus, it is a bit dense in places, and I never could get time to do a solid, quiet reading with it. You need to be able to concentrate on the book and not things around you.
Now, I was assuming the machine category was for the denotation/definition of the word, machine. You know, a car, plane, washing machine, fax machine, cell phone, elevator. I, however, was trying to take the connotation of it. I went with the parts: “An apparatus. Applying power. Having several parts, each with its own distinct function and together performing a particular task.” The digestive system of a body does have a “mechanical digestion” component. Therefore, I consider the human body, and by extension the digestive system, a machine.
Okay, it might not be manmade, but it does some pretty crazy things! It digests, yes, but it starts well before that. We follow our narrator (a surprise guest we learn the identity of at the end) through the body. Starting with the mouth and teeth chewing to finally the final flush we see how our food is broken down. We see the liver, good and bad bacteria, our small and large intestine, and everything in between. The littlest thing can do some of the biggest jobs, and we even talk with our appendix (which seems to actually have a job or two).
The art is cartoonish. Andy Ristaino, I am assuming, wanted the images to be kid friendly. And they are goofy, cute, cartoons. Therefore, they are friendly, but sometimes for me as an adult reader, the were too goofy. Sometimes text and illustration crowded each other too much. Your reader would have to be a slightly stronger reader unless they do well with fact/non-fiction over fiction.
