4^th Grade and Up

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.
From goosebumps and hiccups to exploding organs and monkey muscles, each room in the museum shows us that these parts have stories to tell us about our past. By the time we make it to the gift shop, we’ll understand that evolution is not only messy and imperfect, but also ongoing. Our bodies are constantly changing along with our environment—and there’s so much that is still unknown, just waiting to be discovered.

I discovered this book on Instagram, and I had to get my hands on it.

What a remarkable way to learn about evolution, biology, and the odder side of science. This book is brilliantly written and enjoyable to read. Why can’t textbooks be this well-written and engaging?

A few aspects I found the most thought-provoking:

• Wisdom teeth and how human adult jaws aren’t big enough to fit all 32 teeth. (I had two wisdom teeth removed when I was eighteen. I had the procedure in December, close to Christmas time. Surprisingly, not my worst Christmas.)
• When human babies are born, they have a powerful grip that scientists call the palmar reflex. It is believed to be a leftover from when your baby ancestors clung to their mother’s fur.
• The many different theories on why we lost our fur

Overall, this is an extraordinary non-fiction book full of great discussion starters that will make you seem smart at dinner parties.