The SECRET FAMILY [Hardcover]

David Bodanis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 1997

Ever wonder what's in your morning orange juice -- and what happens once you drink it? Ever think about the millions of bacteria that thrive on your skin, even after a shower or bath? Curious about the effects of dieting on your body, a fast-food meal, or a passionate kiss? The Secret Family provides the sometimes unsettling, always enlightening answers. Full of amazing, full-color photographs that magnify our everyday companions -- from the Vitamin C we consume in the morning to the creatures who share our pillows at night -- and Bodanis's witty and stylish reporting, this is an "inside story" that will appeal to every member of the family.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David Bodanis, author of The Secret House and The Secret Garden, applies his wit and curiosity to another invisible realm: the insides of our bodies. Bodanis wraps his thought-provoking investigation of the natural world in the story of a family's typical day. We follow the baby's explorations of the house, go out with the family to the mall, and experience the daughter's first kiss. Of course, your mind still might be reeling from breakfast and the orange juice--"a liquid which contains embalming fluid, varnish solvent, vinegar, and nail polish remover ... and a certain amount of real orange juice, too."

All that microscopic reality--the benign bacteria feasting on our faces, the widening of the pupils as Baby's gaze meets Mom's or Dad's ("the tiny muscles controlling the pupils in the dad's eyes suddenly tug wider. Males who don't have children rarely show this universal sign of interest.")--triggers a host of facts, both fascinating and appalling; that aforementioned parental gaze segues into an explanation of the ingredients of baby food ("boiled and skimmed pigs' feet extract is often used, though in a pinch the scooped inner pith of discarded fruit can be added, too. Chalk is often added next"). And that's the least of it...

Bodanis's scrutiny is fortified with more than two dozen color photographs from the Science Photo Library that show the world we live in but, thankfully, never see. It's amusing, disturbing, and cheerful in the face of "Ugh!" and "Ah!"--the perfect book to trigger lively conversations. One thing's for certain: you'll never again complain that your ordinary day is just too ordinary.

From Library Journal

Bodanis, of The Secret House (1986) and The Secret Garden (LJ 11/1/92) fame, here looks microscopically at a family of four in their microorganism-ridden, poison-spewing, neurotransmitter-driven splendor: Bodanis has never met a dust mite he couldn't describe arrestingly, nor a processed food product he couldn't make forever unappetizing. The set-up here is often the travel patterns of bacteria and the chemical interactions of human and environment, right down to the intimate and romantic sharing of E. gingivalis during a teenage girl's first kiss. Great yucky fun for everyone, especially those interested in the science of the unseen world. Bodanis is a marvelous science writer for lay and professional readers alike. A wonderful acquisition for general collections and essential for school collections?this is the sort of book that turns grade schoolers into science lovers.?Mark L. Shelton, Univ. of Massachusetts Medical Ctr., Worcester
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (August 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684810190
• ISBN-13: 978-0684810195
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #762,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, entertaining, informative - a great read - buy it, September 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The SECRET FAMILY (Hardcover)

The Secret Family by David Bodanis is a popular science book with a difference - it is funny and entertaining, as well as being informative. He has a talent for exposing hidden worlds in the most mundane of everyday activities: the food we eat, our shopping routines, family relationships and the way our bodies work. Plus he has the most amazing colour photographs of soap bubbles, scouring pads, eggshells, sweat droplets, CDs, and salt etc, magnified so much that they expose a different and beautiful world.

He takes an ordinary family - parents, teenage daughter, ten year old son, baby and a dog - and traces them through a lazy Saturday breakfast and visit to the mall. After reading this you will never look at your supermarket orange juice or danish pastry with quite the same relish. You will eye your friends and family suspiciously as they carry huge populations of microscpic mites (demodex) on their eyelashes regardless of how clean they are and when two people kiss, the mites intermingle and new populations are born! Bodanis scatters his narrative with interesting curiosities - how the yellow sticky notes were invented, the origins of the doberman, the arbitrary address system for mail in parts of Japan, and how supermarkets use synthetic smells, colour and music to get us to walk slowly, buy more, and eat faster.

I'm a fan of Bodanis, and recommend his earlier books too (The Secret House and The Secret Garden). So if you want to give yourself a treat, read this book, and then buy one for a friend.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously frightening, April 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The SECRET FAMILY (Hardcover)

This book provides a fascinating look into what goes on in our homes daily. The descriptions of what we eat, where we sleep, and how our bodies protect us from (too much) harm are incredible. Bodanis has researched nearly every aspect of family life, and explains to us what it all means. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't have enough photographs. Those that it does have are splendid, however.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mind blowing!, December 29, 1997

By 

Victor Christianson (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The SECRET FAMILY (Hardcover)

It's not often you read a book that opens your mind to entire new worlds. Reading this made me feel like an explorer who has just discovered a world hidden in plain sight. Every page made me think "WOW"! This is a mind-expanding book.