Tastes Like Music: 17 Quirks of the Brain and Body

Birmingham explores flukes in body function à la Oliver Sacks, even offering herself as a case study (the author has congenital anosmia, or no sense of smell). Synesthesia, amusia (the inability to interpret and enjoy music), and tetrachromacy (heightened color acuity) are among the aberrations explored in short sections amid Melnychuk’s caricatures of hip-looking teens. Real-life individuals are profiled in short q&a sections: “I cannot picture the faces of the people I love, not even those of my children,” explains a Kansas woman with face blindness. It’s an intriguing introduction to the body’s outside-the-norm capabilities. Ages 8–12. (Oct.)