All About the Heart (Remi Kowalski, illus by Tonia Composto, Berbay)
All About the Heart by paediatric cardiologist Remi Kowalski and graphic designer Tonia Composto is the first in Berbay’s new nonfiction picture book series for four- to eight-year-olds. Kowalski and Composto meld the heart as a symbol of love into their description of the circulatory system (‘Hearts mean love but they also mean life.’). Hugging is evocatively described as an experience when two hearts almost physically touch. Nonetheless, hearts principally have the task of pumping blood around the body to send energy to the organs. We learn that almost every creature has a heart. Octopuses have three hearts, earthworms have five. A ‘love heart’ literally looks like the three-chambered heart of a snake, rather than the four-chambered human heart. Kowalski writes cogently and succinctly to engage and educate the reader, while Composto applies her printmaking and design skills to represent the data clearly and with flair: she positions multiple figures, shapes and lines on each page to maintain interest, and intentionally limits her colour palette to red, pink and blue to represent the blood moving around the body. A superb way to showcase the circulatory system, All About the Heart will be enjoyed by curious children.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Joy Lawn has worked for independent bookshops and blogs at Paperbark Words Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
