Review: The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins by HP Newquist

The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins by HP Newquist.

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Publication Date: August 2012
List Price: $17.99
ISBN-13: 9780547315843

Review: The Book of Blood is a nonfiction book. First, it shows how blood is important, how it goes through your body and makes sure you are healthy; second it explains how people discovered how important blood really is. The book starts out explaining red blood cells and how your heart works along with your arteries and veins. Then you go back to ancient times, when the Nile floods and when Aztecs sacrifice people to their gods. Then the story progresses through time.

This is a book that at times captivates you and keeps you interested with juicy and interesting facts. However, sometimes I felt tempted to skip the selection because of how boring it was. The book was exceptionally gruesome. I do understand the book is all about blood, but sometimes it goes over the limit. For example, the book shows pictures such as a stream of blood bursting from a man's arm or a picture of a brain of someone that was dead. I skipped some of the pages because the pictures were too disturbing. I also felt like it was a textbook. I did learn a lot from the Book of Blood though. Many interesting facts forced me to continue reading. Something I thought was very interesting was how the history went through time and explained how it was kind of like evolution. Some parts left me wanting more information, and that led me to look online. The book had some humor in it, and when it did, it nailed it. Many parts of the book made me laugh.

Review written by Luc (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins for this review.

Have you read The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins? How would you rate it?