CELLS AT WORK BABY VOL 1 BY YASUHIRO FUKUDA

This spin off of the main story of Cells at Work is about a baby body with baby cells, and all of them are drawn in a chibi style (large eyes, puffy cheeks, short limbs). The main characters in this are Red Blood Cell (Chibi) and F, a type of red blood cell bearing Hemoglobin-F which is more effective when the fetus is in the womb. By the end of this volume, we also meet a White Blood Cell (Chibi), who, unlike his counterpart in the main series, is a big scaredy cat but still does his job in defending the baby’s body. The baby cells must fight off infection, with some help from Mother's Milk, as well as figure out how to navigate to the lungs once the baby is born.

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This entire volume is extremely cute, but it still delivers a ton of medical knowledge. There is something to be said about the continuity of reading Cells at Work: Code Black before this, which is all about reproduction, but it is definitely an adult title. This would be good for younger audiences based on the drawings, but there is still a bunch of medical terms (which are defined, of course), and the reader should have a basic understanding of where a baby comes from before picking this up. In California, where I'm based, basic Sex-Ed starts in 5th grade, so I'd suggest not putting this lower than whenever that starts in your state.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 5-12

Publisher: Kodansha
Publication Date: January 9, 2020
ISBN: 9781646512027​ (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Elementary School, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Science, Humor, Kodansha