I have recently been searching for extra Biology books for my daughter to read – books that may just explain some of the concepts that she is learning about slightly differently, or books that may contain informative diagrams to help explain the concepts. Now this is no reflection on her main student book that she is using it is just the way that we like to learn. We like to be able to read “extra material” about the topics that she is learning about (sometimes reading a sentence that is slightly differently worded or phrased just allows everything to slot into place. 

Anyway with that in mind, I happened to spot that our library had a copy of the DK book - How Biology Works, so we borrowed it and she has been dipping in and out focusing on pages which either interest her or on pages which deal with topics that have been a bit confusing (we are NOT reading this cover to cover). But using it in our way we are finding it really good. We love the visual feel – the stunning, eye-catching diagrams which help to explain ideas and the easy to read format. (I want to stress this is NOT a student book, it is an extra explaining book so please don’t think it can take the place of a main book).

The Book is divided into 10 main categories (these categories are split into smaller subsections which are normally 2 pages long).

• What is Life? (eg Kingdoms of life, biosphere, viruses)
• The Chemistry of Life (eg Nutrients, enzymes, photosynthesis, respiration)
• How Cells Work (eg parts of a cell, cell transport, cell division, nerve cell, muscle cell, blood cells)
• Reproduction and Genetics (eg asexual and sexual reproduction, stem cells, genomes, inheritance, mutations)
• Evolution (eg adaption, coevolution, extinction)
• The Tree of Life (eg prokaryotes, eukaryotes, protists, fungi. algae)
• How Plants Work (eg roots, stems ,transport)
• How Animals Work (eg circulatory and digestive system, nervous system, sensors, response)
• Ecology (eg ecosystems, biomes, feed webs, breeding strategies)
• Biotechnology (eg selective breeding, DNA testing, gene therapy, cloning)

Thoughts about the content – everything is in here. It covers all the core Biology concepts that the kids look at in their school years and it presents everything in a very easy to understand manner (for us the visual feel of this book is why everything seems so easy to understand).

We like the page layouts and well, really everything about this book just suits us.

Like I mentioned above we borrowed our copy from the local library but you can get it directly from Amazon with this link – How Biology Works

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