Since children are naturally curious about their body, it’s no wonder that they are fascinated by human body books!
Anatomy and health science are among my favorite topics to discuss with children. In this post, I will share our favorite books that introduce the human body to children between ages 0-12 years of age.
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In our home library, we have a few books on each subject for reference. When my children are curious about a particular topic, I can grab one our books, read to learn answers, and use the illustrations for further discussion.
Human anatomy books are particularly useful because our children are constantly wondering about their bodies. They want to know where their food goes and why they feel full. Inner organs, muscles, and bones – they are all a fascinating mystery!
Since my children speak 3 languages, we have a collection of human anatomy books in English, Chinese, and Korean.
Although I was previously practicing pediatrics, medical vocabulary in Chinese is very new to me as English is my native language. Our nanny also speaks Korean, although only conversationally. Therefore, if we need to look up a the name of a body part, we can refer to our human anatomy books!
Otherwise, my daughter has been exploring the Chinese human body books in more depth with her Chinese tutor.
When I was first browsing online bookstores for this topic a few years ago, I wasn’t sure which book was the best. Buying books that aren’t your native tongue is often challenging!
My biggest frustration with popular children’s science books is that concepts from outward appearance to microscopic bacteria are unnecessarily cartoonified.
When my daughter asks about viruses and what they look like, most children’s books will show colorful caricatures with angry faces. In reality, pathogens have no faces or emotions. Furthermore, some bacteria are a necessary part of healthy skin and gut flora.
The problem that many publishers fail to recognize is that realistic details are interesting to children.
Children can have fun looking at photographs of the heart and brain; they don’t need “dumbed down” illustrations that are visually misleading!
Human body books in English, Chinese, and Korean
Without further ado, here are anatomy books for children in our family’s 3 languages! Most of these books are in simplified Chinese; some are in English and a couple are in Korean.
Each of the books listed are hardcover editions. ISBN information is included so that you can find the books online or at your local library.
At the end of the post, I’ll also include a book that should be avoided as well as a highly loved discontinued book series.
1. Anatomy: A Cutaway Look Inside the Human Body by Jean-Claude Druvert
This book gives an overview about human anatomy through gorgeous, detailed illustrations and background about each organ system.
The laser cut organ systems have amazing details that you can see and feel!
To see each organ more clearly, I suggest placing a black sheet of paper behind each page when you want to focus on a particular system.
As shown in the image above, the beautiful illustrations are accompanied by 1 page of information.
This is by far our family’s favorite human anatomy book that is full of medical details.
Depending on your family’s Chinese level, this book may be useful for children of all ages.
Our Chinese teacher from Beijing felt that she was learning a lot of new vocabulary herself while reading this with my daughter!
The realistic 3 dimensional images help explain how the human body functions. Each flap and envelope contains extra information and images to explore.
For example, one of the flaps contains images of the eyes and how is changes over time (eg, wrinkles and droppping).
Here’s a closer look at how our realistic heart models was used in conjunction with the book. Having something to hold makes such a big difference in explaining science to children! The life-size heart model below is from my husband’s work; similar ones can be found here and here. The mini model is part of our 3B Scientific Mini-Torso model (similar one on Amazon here).
This is a wonderful human body book that reads like a story with relevant facts about the body. Originally written in German, the Chinese version is translated well according to our Chinese teacher.
The realistic illustrations help children reflect on their own doctor’s appointments and experience with health check-ups!
My daughter read part of this on her own, and she was intrigued that they showed an example of an allergy test! Since my son has several food allergies, it was helpful for him to see another child experiencing a relevant procedure.
This is a very popular 3D interactive Chinese book for children. Both of my kids were instantly attracted to it, especially the baby floating in liquid, representing amniotic fluid in a pregnant uterus!!!
Over the past couple of years, my children have enjoyed all of the 3D books by this publisher! There is so much to see, touch, and move!
Although I’m a pediatrician and not intimately acquainted with anatomy like a surgeon, the gross oversimplification of the organs bothers me.
For example, the image of the digestive tract shows a food bolus traveling straight down through the intestines instead of traveling through the path.
The vessels of the circulatory system are drawn somewhat randomly as well.
Still, I would recommend this book as it probably the one that my children are drawn to most! For reference, I compare images with more accurate illustrations from our other books so they understand that some books try to simplify concepts.
4. Usborne Lift-the-flap Human Body Book 身体小百科(看里面问答版)
Like most Usborne books, the illustrations are adorable!
In addition, the book is fun and interactive with question and answer flaps. On the front of each interactive flap is a question while the underside contains the answer. For example, “Can I pick my nose if nobody is watching?” with a respectful answer “Yes, but you shouldn’t, and here’s why…”.
My 5.5-year-old daughter really enjoys it and can read it mostly independently.
Since the information is pretty basic, children under age 7 years would likely find it most interesting.
However, older children who are just starting to learn Chinese may also enjoy learning common Chinese vocabulary from this book!
6. Usborne Look Inside Your Body 어스본요리조리 열어 보는 우리 몸
This book was originally written in English and has been translated to numerous languages, and we have the Korean version.
The style is somewhat similar to the book in number 5 with the flaps of information, and the book superficially covers each body part.
The difference is that this book does not have the cute question-and-answer format as the previous book, but it covers a little more information about the inner organs.
This is a cute and interactive board book that teaches basic vocabulary and simple questions in Chinese.
I recommend this for parents of young children who are beginning to learn Chinese, because the book teaches names of the basic body parts.
The board book is durable enough for little babies, and the sliding window is a fun way to encourage learning new Chinese words! Most words have Pinyin, which is helpful for non-fluent parents like me.
National Geographic is known for high quality science photographs, so I mistakenly assumed this book would be a good choice.
However, I should have judged this book by its cover: the inside provides little information visually, and I’m not sure if I should recycle the book…
Out-of-print anatomy book: Skeletons (Korean)
This out of print Korean book about skeletons is one part of an incredible 80 book set from The Picture Book of Nature and Science. My children love every single book in this series, and the skeleton book is no exception!
I apologize for sharing a book that cannot be purchased! However, I am praying that an author, illustrator, or publisher might see this article.
Hopefully, this will inspire someone to create more beautiful, realistic, captivating, and educational resources for our children’s generation.
Take away points
Although we have several human body books, most people will not need so many basic ones. Just a few would be helpful to keep at home for convenient reference.
However, be picky about the illustrations! We all learn information from our eyes first!
Which Human Body book is your favorite?
I’d love to know whether you have any of these books already, and what you think of them!
Please leave a comment so that we can all check out your suggestions! 🙂
More Chinese children’s books about the human body
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