Build a better sibling with Frankenstein guide

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Grrrrrr.

You love your family, but sometimes your brother bugs you, Mom makes you mad, and Dad gets under your skin.

So why not make all new family members? It's easy, if you have "Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book." You can be Dr. Frankenstein's assistant and get step-by-step instructions on building a new person from the inside out. While you're at it, you'll learn some really cool things about your own body.

When construction workers put up a building, they start with the sturdiest materials possible. That's where you have to begin, too, with atoms. Atoms, says Dr. Frankenstein, are extremely tiny. Trillions of them are needed to make just one body.

So take those trillions of atoms and build some tissue, then use the tissue to make organs like a stomach or heart. Atoms can be used to make bones, too, and you'll need lots of them or your new family member will collapse! Make the bones carefully and remember that there are many parts to each one. You might want to start with the 28 bones in the skull because you'll need a place to put the brain.

"Once installed, the brain needs to be linked up to the rest of the body," says Dr. Frankenstein. You do that by connecting it to the spinal cord along the backbone, which creates a "command center" for the body. Now check the eyes and ears. You want your new family member to recognize you, don't you?

In order to keep everything working right, the new body is going to need a fuel supply, which comes with a blood vessel system and includes a heart. It's also going to need a way to get rid of waste. Add in teeth, a stomach, muscles here and there, lungs, wrap it all in skin and - voila - you're done making your brand new family member.

Wasn't that frightfully fun?

By the time a kid gets to the age group that this book targets (9 and up), he or she probably has a good sense of silliness, mixed with a big dose of curiosity. "Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book" speaks to both sides of that kid.

While the "make your own human" part is a reach, the plotline helps teach kids about their innards in an easy-to-follow way that stretches their imaginations.

Two other great things parents will want to know: the drawings and illustrations in this book are colorful and worthy of a pediatrician's office; and there are no cutesy baby-talk terms here, which helps hone kids' reading skills with challenging words and kid-friendly but real medical explanations.

If there's a future doctor in your house, or if you live with a mad scientist, pick up "Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book." With this book in their hands, they'll have a leg (or arm or shoulder or ear) up.

Terri Schlichenmeyer's book reviews appear weekly in the View.