Your Hidden Life 1: Unseen Jungle- The Microbes that Secretly Control Our World: Your Hidden Life

We are surrounded by microbes. Sometimes they can make us ill, but they also do lots of amazing things for us like digest our food, help us to be happy, and smell nice. Yes, really! 

In this fun and informative guide to all things microbial, aimed at Year 6-8 aged children, Dr Rice explains how microbes work in a number of contexts: in our homes (having pets can help children have fewer allergies), gardens and outside spaces (when birds preen, they spread special microbes over their feathers that keep them healthy as well as look beautiful), in food (the four-stomached digestion system of cows) and in our bodies (why butt cracks are stinky).

It’s a genuinely brilliant read, which also features interviews with interesting scientists who are working with and researching how microbes help us.  

Perfectly pitched for a tween audience and perhaps slightly younger, Unseen Jungle is delightfully gross in parts, but also wholesomely enthusiastic about science, delivered in a cool and funny tween tone. Excellent.