I’m delighted to welcome Rachel Poliquin to the STEM Tuesday blog today. She has written a fabulous book about the body, but there’s a really cool twist. You’ll see…
“Kids and adult alike will love poring over the different sections of this book and will delight in informing their friends and family members of the facts they’ve learned.”—School Library Journal ★
A perfect book for engaging kids in STEM: This illustrated tour of our “leftover” body parts (like the appendix, or even goosebumps) introduces readers age 7-11 to the bizarre and fascinating science of evolution.
Welcome to the weirdest museum you’ll ever explore—the one inside your body.
Did you know your amazing, incredible body is a walking, talking museum of evolution? In The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers, tour guides Wisdom Tooth and Disappearing Kidney lead readers through a wacky museum dedicated to vestigial structures: body parts that were essential to our ancestors but are no longer useful to us—even though they’re still hanging around.
Engaging, hilarious, and a visual treat, The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers is a place you’ll want to visit again and again.
Welcome to STEM Tuesday, Rachel. We are delighted to chat with you!
JS: How did you get the idea to write this awesome book?
RQ: An editor at Greystone actually pitched me the idea. Vestigial organs for kids? It sounded perfectly quirky, and of course I said yes.
JS: Did you have fun researching this?
RQ: When I began writing the book, I knew nothing about evolution beyond the basics. I had no idea where to begin! But there is nothing I like more than knowing absolutely nothing about a subject. Once I decided to write the book as a museum of human evolution, I had to do a very deep dive to figure out which creatures were the first or last to have a particular trait so they could be part of the exhibits. I became a little obsessed with an evolution podcast called Common Descent. I’d listen to it for hours while I walked around my neighbourhood.
But this book will always have a special place in my heart. I was finishing writing in March and April of 2020, just at the beginning of Covid when the world had shut up tight and no one knew what was happening. I was reaching out to academics and researchers around the world—Belgium, New York, Japan, Mexico—to help me understand the science, and of course we talked about the situation in their countries and how they were coping. It helped me feel very connected in a time of isolation.
JS: What is your favorite “Odd Body Part”?
RQ: That a hard one! I’m not sure. Of course I love Disappearing Kidney, but I also really love all the theories about why humans lost their fur. Fur isn’t preserved in the same way bones are, so no one really knows. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE how Clayton illustrated the Survivor Hair theories as movie posters. These still crack me up everything time.
JS: What would you like readers to get out of this book?
RQ: Obviously, I’d love them to have a better understand of evolution and how all living creatures are connected. But I also tried to highlight that science and our understanding of the world is not all set and done. Scientific theories are constantly in motion and scientists are constantly discovering new things and thinking about the world in new ways—in other words, there is plenty of room for young scientists to make their mark.
JS: How would you like teachers/librarians to use this book?
RQ: The details of the science aren’t as important for kids to remember as the big picture, and I would love teachers to get really creative and maybe even incorporate the book into an art project. Clayton has so many different sorts of museum displays in the book, which could be the basis of all sorts of kooky projects. All the bits and pieces in Museum Storage are all vestigial organs that didn’t make it into the book. I would love to see how kids would turn those into exhibits!
JS: Can you give any tips to writers who want to break into nonfiction children’s books?
RQ: I think I’ve been successful as a non-fiction writer because I write about things no one else has written about or things people assume are uninteresting or boring. I truly believe everything is fascinating, if only you look at it the right way. I also think the best non-fiction books create worlds that are just as compelling and magical as fictional worlds. I really struggle with the “non-fiction” title, actually. We all know what fiction is: imagination, fantastic worlds, cool characters, illustrations, fun. So what that does make “non-fiction”? I try to blur that divide in my books and build worlds for my readers to step into, which I really hope will ignite their curiosity and imagination about the world around them. Also, never underestimate kids! They are so much smarter than we were!
JS: What are you working on now?
RQ: We are just finishing up a follow-up to Museum of Odd Body Leftovers. It’s called The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones. I was lucky enough work with Clayton Hanmer again and the same amazing team at Greystone Books. Clayton did such a knock-out job on this one. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.
That sounds AMAZING! Congrats on the new book and I can’t wait to see it!
Be sure to check out Rachel’s other works at her website https://www.rachelpoliquin.com/
And see her latest books below!
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