“Hurry, hurry to the parade of the strangest creatures ever
made.”
So starts Nobel prize winner Arthur Kornberg’s ‘Germ Stories’, a collection of rhyming stories about the “little beasties” responsible for diseases such as AIDs, food poisoning and pneumonia. Mixed in with these nasties are some good guys, including the mold that brought us Penicillin, and also yeast, much loved by bread and beer enthusiasts!
For me, the most exciting thing about this book are the beautiful illustrations. Every poem is decorated with the smiling faces of hand drawn germs and full page illustrations that bring the world of microbes to life. Salmonella Typhi of typhoid fever fame is featured on the front cover, but it is the brightly coloured germ parade, complete with fireworks and microbe-balloons that I enjoyed the most. The idea of our intestinal bacteria sitting down at tables to eat the food in our guts, and using little ladders to descend through our intestines was equally delightful.
The poems themselves are extremely informative and crammed full of scientific information, without being so complicated that the fun-factor of the book is lost in trying to understand them. A glossary at the end fills in any gaps in knowledge and the verses are interspersed with photos of microbes and lots of facts about the miniature stars of the book.
Germ Stories does well in making microbiology interesting to kids, and it would surely make a brilliant addition to any primary school library. Children who have already shown an interest in science will undoubtedly be inspired to learn more about microbes by this book. The poems themselves are good enough to be brilliant reading practice for everyone else in the class! But I can’t help but wonder how many adults, such as myself, who already love all things microscopic, will be hiding it between the covers of their serious scientific journals and reading it along with the children it was originally written for!
The best thing about the book was how the author’s love of science really shone through, and it was great to read something that showcased microbiology in such a unique and fun way. Kornberg has done well to make microbes relevant to the lives of his readers, bringing to life the rich diversity that exists in the bacterial, fungal and viral world.
A must for anyone, child or adult, with an interest in microbes. 
Germ Stories is published by University Science Books and can
be purchased via the Palgrave
Macmillan web site.
