Picture · ages 3–7

Do Not Lick This Book

Name: Do Not Lick This Book
Author: Idan Ben-Barak
ISBN: 9781760630010

It's Full of Germs

Written by Idan Ben-Barak · Illustrated by Julian Frost

Book 1 in Do Not Lick This BookView the full series

Major award winner

Top giftableAdults love it tooEndlessly rereadable

Meet Min, a microbe too small to see, and take her on a giddy interactive tour across your tooth, your shirt and your book, all revealed through real electron-microscope photos. A germ's-eye field trip that is genuinely, gigglingly educational.

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

Where to buyPaperback

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The vibe

What it’s like.

Style

Second person
Conversational
Comedic

Tone

Funny
Silly
Whimsical

Themes

On the pagemicrobes, germs, science, human body

Experience meters

Energy4/ 5

Humour4/ 5

Scariness1/ 5

Peril1/ 5

Wonder4/ 5

Cosiness2/ 5

Emotional intensity1/ 5

Conceptual intensity2/ 5

What’s it about?

The story.

Min is a microbe so tiny you'd need a microscope to spot her, and this brilliantly simple interactive picture book invites you to carry her on an adventure across the everyday world. Tilt the book, touch the page, rub your finger here and blow there, and help Min journey from the icy glaciers of your tooth to the tangled jungle of your shirt. Microbiologist Idan Ben-Barak pairs his playful, participatory text with genuine scanning electron microscope photographs and Julian Frost's bright, funny cartoon art, so children giggle their way through a real science lesson without ever noticing. Winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia's Eve Pownall Award for information books, it makes the invisible world of germs feel enormous, hilarious and completely fascinating, and children beg to do the whole tour again.

Fit check

Right for your child?

Where it lands by age

An interactive read-aloud that delights 3-7s, with the science and captions rewarding independent readers up to about 8. There is nothing frightening in it, so it suits any child, and the touch-and-tilt element makes it a repeat favourite.

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
Gift-buying
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

Getting to touch, tilt and blow on the pages to move Min along is pure hands-on joy, and the disgust-thrill of learning your shirt is a jungle full of germs never gets old. The real microscope photos make it feel like a genuine secret world.

Secret world
Trickery and cleverness

Why parents love it

Written by an actual microbiologist, it smuggles real germ science into a giggly, interactive romp, complete with genuine electron-microscope photographs. It reads aloud brilliantly, invites participation from even the wriggliest listener, and quietly makes hand-washing make sense.

Educational for adult too
Shared humour
Quick to read

In the series

Do Not Lick This Book.

2 books · open the series →

You are here

Do Not Lick This Book2017 · Book 1

Cover of Argh! There's a Skeleton Inside You!

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.