Spit: What’s Cool about Drool

The title says it all. It’s yucky. It’s gooey It makes your food chewy Ptooey! Ptooey! Oh, spit. Ew! Nasty! Ew! Gross! But spit is no spitball joke. Drool is cool! It’s one of the most amazing fluids in your body. In Spit, renowned science writer and children’s author Mary Batten examines everything that’s cool about drool. Spit keeps your mouth moist. It begins digesting food the minute you take a bite. It keeps your teeth from wearing away. It keeps your tongue from choking you to death! But it isn’t just humans that rely on spit, anything with a mouth needs saliva to keep functioning. A vampire bat has special saliva that stops its victim’s blood from clotting. A spitting spider can trap prey in gooey saliva that it can spit in 1/700th of a second - that’s fast! And, if spitballs are your thing, perhaps try your hand at spitting antelope dung; the record, set in South Africa, is 51 feet! In Spit, Batten’s informative and informal text is paired with humorous illustrations and real-life photos to help tell the important story hiding in this gross-out subject. From the DNA in human mouths to the science behind Pavlov’s dogs to the astounding wonders of saliva in the animal kingdom, Spit uncovers the secrets secreting in the many mouths on the globe. AGES: 9 to 13 AUTHOR: Mary Batten is an award-winning writer with a focus on science content for children. Some of her many books include Please Don’t Wake the Animals, Aliens from Earth: When Animals and Plants Invade Other Ecosystems and Anthropologist: Scientist of the People. She also wrote for the acclaimed TV series, 3-2-1 Contact. Mary Batten lives and works in Virginia.