Food and Your Health (Health Matters)

Jillian Powell is an experienced writer of children's non-fiction and has written about many health and social issues.

Grade 2-5?Two upbeat series offerings with bright, colorful illustrations and photographs that nicely enhance the texts. Exercise encourages children to achieve and maintain physical fitness. Benefits are outlined, and a good deal of physiology is conveyed as well. The importance of warming up and cooling down, proper attire and precautions, and developing a personal exercise plan are all emphasized. Food covers the main facts of nutrition and outlines digestion and how the body utilizes food for growth and energy. Data on proper body weight, fiber, fats, proteins, additives, and safe handling of food are all addressed, with an appropriately gross photo of food that has spoiled. A section entitled "Problem Foods" addressing foods shunned by vegetarians or religious groups is lumped in with eating restrictions of diabetics and those who have intolerances or allergies. Catherine Reef's Stay Fit (21st Century Bks., 1993) offers much greater depth of information in the same spectrum; Alexandra Parsons's Fit for Life (Watts, 1996) includes much the same information found in Powell's books and incorporates drug abuse, smoking, drinking, and some personal hygiene in a humorous approach that emphasizes individual choice. Rachel Wright's Why Do I Eat? (Aladdin, 1992) does a nice job of explaining the digestive system to younger readers.?Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
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