"Circulation Celebration" In THE SUM OF OUR PARTS

One excuse has led to another since the first post about my "No Bones About It" book back in May.  That book is the first book in THE SUM OF OUR PARTS series and I had originally planned to post something on "Circulation Celebration", the second book in the series shortly after the "Bones" post.  But here it is July 1 already.  So, no more putting it off.

"Circulation Celebration" is just that.  A bouncy book about blood, written in rhyme.  There are also some pretty gnarly illustrations in the book, too.  If you want to learn about the circulatory system, "Circulation Celebration" is the book for you.  At least it will get you started on the basics:  how much blood do you have in your system, how it is made, how many times does your heart beat in a day or a year, what a blood type is, that kind of stuff.  Let's jump in with a few of the opening verses:

What if a coffee pot
Never stops perking?
Imagine an engine
That never stops working!

Now think of your heart
That never stops beating.
Each day into night,
Its beat keeps repeating.

"Lub-DUB" times seventy--
Are the beats in each minute.
Yes, one hundred-thousand's
What each day has in it.

OK.  So, that should give you enough to pick up the beat and tune into the pulse of what the rhyming part of "Circulation Celebration" has in store for you.  But what about a few Factoids to wet your whistle?  Here's some gee-whiz stuff to make you sound like you know what you're talking about. 

Did you know that Children around three years old only have about four pints (or around two liters) of blood in their bodies?  As you get older, the amount of blood increases because your body needs more oxygen and nutrients to survive. 

By the time you are ten years old, you might have six or seven pints (a little over three liters) of blood in your body.  And, believe it or not, when you are an adult, you will likely have around ten or so pints of blood in you.

Here are a few more fun-filled facts for you:  In 24 hours, your heart will beat nearly 100,000 times.  And  in a year, the number of beats would total around 35 million.  That's a lot of beats to keep track of. 

Aren't you glad your brain does all that in the background, including making sure the heart keeps on beating around the clock, even when you are sleeping?  You'll learn more about the brain in a later post on this blog.  But next up in the series is "Muscles Make Us Move".  So, stay tuned.  In the meantime, get your muscular self out there and exercise!