Picture · ages 3–7

Argh! There's a Skeleton Inside You!

Name: Argh! There's a Skeleton Inside You!
Author: Idan Ben-Barak
ISBN: 9781911631583

Written by Idan Ben-Barak · Illustrated by Julian Frost

Book 2 in Do Not Lick This BookView the full series

Adults love it tooEndlessly rereadable

Two hapless aliens, Quort and Oort, need hands to fix their spaceship, so they grow some, layer by layer, giving young readers a hilarious interactive tour of bones, muscles and everything that makes a human body work.

Best for3–7
FormatPicture
Length32 pp
Read aloud~6 min

Where to buyPaperback

Amazon

See price at Amazon

Buy →

Affiliate links — buy through these retailers and we earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Find similar books

The vibe

What it’s like.

Style

Second person
Conversational
Comedic

Tone

Funny
Silly
Whimsical

Themes

On the pagehuman body, skeleton, bones, science, aliens

Experience meters

Energy4/ 5

Humour5/ 5

Scariness1/ 5

Peril1/ 5

Wonder3/ 5

Cosiness2/ 5

Emotional intensity1/ 5

Conceptual intensity2/ 5

What’s it about?

The story.

Quort and Oort are two friendly aliens whose spaceship has broken down on the way to their friend Kevin's birthday party, and they urgently need a hand, except they don't have any hands. So they decide to build one. From the creators of Do Not Lick This Book comes another gloriously silly, interactive science picture book that assembles the human body piece by piece: first the skeleton, then muscles, skin and everything in between. Idan Ben-Barak's participatory text asks readers to help out at every stage, while Julian Frost's bright, comic illustrations keep the giggles coming as the aliens bumble towards a working hand. It's a joyfully daft way to introduce anatomy to the very young, turning bones and body parts into a laugh-out-loud team effort that rewards being read aloud and pored over again and again.

Fit check

Right for your child?

Where it lands by age

A silly, interactive read-aloud that suits 3-7s, with the anatomy labels rewarding new readers up to around 8. Completely gentle in content, so it works for any child, and the join-in humour makes it one to reach for again and again.

Best fit · 3–7
Read aloud · 3–7
Independent · 5–8

Prose load

Light

Visual support

Very high

Reluctant-reader friendly

Very

Read-aloud quality

Excellent

Works well for

Reading aloud
Reading together
Reluctant readers

Low sensitivityNo content warnings

Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.

Bedtime suitability

2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime

Sensitive-child

5 / 5 · Good fit

Graphic intensity

1 / 5 · None

Best for

Curious kids
Funny read aloud
Science lovers
Interactive books

Avoid if

Wants narrative story
Wants calm bedtime

Particularly good for children who are…

Interested in science

Why it lands

Why they love it.

Why kids love it

The idea that there is a whole skeleton hiding inside you is deliciously creepy and fascinating, and helping clueless aliens Quort and Oort build a body layer by layer makes children feel like the clever ones. The party mishap keeps it silly from start to finish.

Secret world
Trickery and cleverness

Why parents love it

A microbiologist's second romp turns bones, muscles and skin into an interactive team-build with two bumbling aliens. It reads aloud with real comic timing, invites the listener to join in, and slips genuine body science past children who think they're just being silly.

Educational for adult too
Shared humour
Quick to read

In the series

Do Not Lick This Book.

2 books · open the series →

Do Not Lick This Book2017 · Book 1 You are here

Argh! There's a Skeleton Inside You!2019 · Book 2

About the creators

About the creators.

Idan Ben-Barak

Writer · Australia

Idan Ben-Barak is an Australian author based in Melbourne, a microbiologist with degrees in microbiology and in the history and philosophy of science, who writes joyfully silly science books for the very young. In our corpus he is represented by Do Not Lick This Book and Argh! There's a Skeleton Inside You!, both published by Allen & Unwin and illustrated by Julian Frost. The first takes readers on a giddy interactive tour of the microscopic world, following a microbe called Min across a tooth and a shirt using real electron-microscope photographs; the second builds the human body piece by piece as two hapless aliens grow themselves a hand. Participatory, gigglingly funny and made to be read aloud again and again, they turn real science into a team effort. Do Not Lick This Book won Australia's CBCA Eve Pownall Award for information books.

Julian Frost

Illustrator · Australia

Julian Frost is an Australian illustrator, designer and animator, best known outside books for the viral rail-safety animation Dumb Ways to Die. In children's publishing he illustrates microbiologist Idan Ben-Barak's interactive science picture books, Do Not Lick This Book (2017) and Argh! There's a Skeleton Inside You! (2019), pairing real electron-microscope photography and bumbling aliens with his bright, googly-eyed cartoon microbes. Participatory, giggly and genuinely educational, the books turn the invisible worlds of germs and anatomy into laugh-out-loud team efforts made for reading aloud again and again. Do Not Lick This Book won the CBCA's Eve Pownall Award for information books. A joyful science-picture-book illustrator for ages 3-7.