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The Guards Inside Every Breath

by Yui Kobayashi

Trinity Books · October 14, 2026

A gentle, accurate science book that turns every breath into an adventure — and leaves children with habits that protect them for life.

Reading time: About 3 h 20 min (at 230 words a minute)

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Cover of The Guards Inside Every Breath

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Length228 pages

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Details

AuthorJapan Yui Kobayashi
CategoryHow the human body works / Science wonders for children / Health basics
Language of the bookEnglish
PublishedOctober 14, 2026
Length228 pages
Product numberTB-W0001-EN
Reading timeAbout 3 h 20 min (at 230 words a minute)
Print-ready PDFA5 · interior PDF and cover PDF (with bleed: two versions, 3 mm and 3.175 mm, can be downloaded.) · 228 pages

Categories of this book

CategoriesLearning and general knowledgeHow the human body works

CategoriesFor childrenScience wonders for children

CategoriesHealth and bodyHealth basics

About this book

Every breath brings in dust, pollen and germs, yet most of the time we stay healthy. Why? This book follows a single breath from the tip of the nose to the deepest corners of the lungs and introduces the guards that protect the body at every step, one body part per chapter.

Follow one breath on its journey and meet the guards that keep your body safe.

Take a slow breath in. Along with the oxygen your body needs, that breath carries specks of dust, bits of pollen and germs too small to see. So why are you not sick all the time? Because your body has guards: hairs, sticky mucus, quick reflexes, tiny sweeping hairs and cells that clean up, working day and night.

This book visits them one at a time. Each of its fifteen chapters stops at one part of the body, from the nose, the throat and the windpipe to the hundreds of millions of tiny air sacs deep in the lungs, the blood that carries oxygen and the muscles that pump air in and out. Every chapter explains what that part does and how it helps protect you from disease, with everyday comparisons that make each idea easy to picture.

Every chapter ends with a short list of key words, so children can look back at new terms whenever they like. The book can be read in order, like a journey down into the lungs and back out again, or opened at any chapter that sparks curiosity.

After reading this book, children will be able to…

  • Explain the path air takes from the nose to the lungs
  • Describe how the nose, throat and windpipe trap dust and germs
  • Tell why we sneeze, cough and get a fever
  • Explain how the lungs and blood carry oxygen around the body
  • Understand how handwashing, sleep and clean air help the body's guards
  • Use key words such as mucus, cilia, alveoli and antibodies with confidence

Contents

  • Before We Begin: A Note for Children and Grown-Ups
  • Chapter 1: What Is in the Air?
    1. A Breath You Never Think About
    2. What Air Is Made Of
    3. Why Your Body Needs Oxygen
    4. The Tiny Travelers in the Air
    5. Germs: Most Are Harmless, Some Are Not
    6. A Body Full of Guards
    7. The Journey Begins at the Nose
  • Chapter 2: The Nose: The First Gate
    1. More Than a Bump on Your Face
    2. Two Doors and a Wall
    3. Hairs That Catch Dust
    4. Mucus: The Sticky Trap
    5. Warming and Wetting the Air
    6. Smell: The Nose's Alarm Bell
    7. Being Kind to Your Nose
  • Chapter 3: Sneezes and Coughs: The Body's Emergency Exits
    1. A Tickle, a Breath and a Blast
    2. What Is a Reflex?
    3. Inside a Sneeze
    4. Inside a Cough
    5. Where Do Sneezes and Coughs Go?
    6. Catch It in Your Elbow
    7. When the Exits Are Busy
More
  • Chapter 4: The Throat and Tonsils: Guards at the Crossroads
    1. The Crossroads Behind Your Mouth
    2. A Wet and Busy Place
    3. Meet Your Tonsils
    4. The Hidden Guards and a Ring of Posts
    5. How the Guard Posts Learn About Germs
    6. When the Throat Gets Sore
    7. A Choice at the Crossroads
  • Chapter 5: The Epiglottis: The Little Door That Keeps Food Out
    1. Two Roads and One Little Door
    2. Meet the Voice Box
    3. What Happens When You Swallow
    4. Breathing and Swallowing Take Turns
    5. When Something Goes Down the Wrong Way
    6. Helping Your Little Door
    7. Beyond the Little Door
  • Chapter 6: The Windpipe: An Escalator of Tiny Hairs
    1. Down Past the Little Door
    2. A Ringed Tube You Can Feel
    3. A Carpet of Tiny Hairs
    4. Sticky Mucus on Top
    5. The Escalator at Work
    6. Taking Care of Your Escalator
  • Chapter 7: The Bronchi: Branches of the Breathing Tree
    1. A Fork in the Road
    2. Branching Again and Again
    3. Why the Air Takes a Winding Path
    4. Guards Along the Branches
    5. Muscles Like Rubber Bands
    6. Asthma: When the Branches Are Extra Sensitive
  • Chapter 8: The Alveoli: Hundreds of Millions of Tiny Balloons
    1. Bunches of Grapes at the Tips
    2. Why Not One Big Balloon?
    3. A Wall Thinner Than Paper
    4. The Great Swap
    5. Keeping the Balloons Open and Clean
    6. When Germs Reach the Alveoli
  • Chapter 9: Macrophages: The Cleaners Who Live in the Lungs
    1. Someone Is Living in Your Lungs
    2. A Family of Defenders
    3. How a Big Eater Eats
    4. Dust, Smoke, and Other Specks
    5. Ringing the Alarm
    6. Cleaning Up and Calming Down
  • Chapter 10: The Blood: The Red Train That Carries Oxygen
    1. All Aboard
    2. What Blood Is Made Of
    3. Red Blood Cells and Their Oxygen Seats
    4. The Heart: Two Pumps Side by Side
    5. Defenders Riding the Train
    6. Keeping Track of Every Breath
  • Chapter 11: The Diaphragm and Ribs: The Breathing Pump
    1. Who Fills the Lungs?
    2. The Diaphragm: A Dome Under Your Lungs
    3. The Ribs: A Cage That Can Move
    4. Breathing In and Breathing Out
    5. Fast Breaths, Slow Breaths
    6. The Brainstem: A Guard That Never Sleeps
    7. How the Pump Protects You
  • Chapter 12: Fever and Rest: When Germs Get In
    1. When Germs Slip Past the Guards
    2. Colds and Flu: Two Common Visitors
    3. Why the Body Turns Up the Heat
    4. Runny Noses, Coughs and Other Busy Signs
    5. Rest: Giving Your Guards Time to Work
    6. When Grown-Ups Talk to a Doctor
    7. Getting Better: The Body Remembers
  • Chapter 13: Handwashing and Vaccines: Helping Your Guards
    1. Every Guard Needs Helpers
    2. How Germs Hitch a Ride
    3. Soap and Water: A Simple Shield
    4. The Immune System Never Forgets
    5. Vaccines: Practice for Your Guards
    6. The Little Pinch and What Comes After
    7. Protecting Each Other
  • Chapter 14: Clean Air and Smoke: Protecting Your Lungs for Life
    1. A Pair of Lungs for a Whole Life
    2. What Smoke Does Inside the Lungs
    3. When Someone You Love Smokes
    4. Air Pollution: The Haze You Cannot Always See
    5. Fresh Air at Home
    6. Exercise: Training the Breathing Team
    7. Small Choices for Big Breaths
  • Chapter 15: Your Everyday Breathing Guards
    1. One Breath, From Beginning to End
    2. A Day With Your Guards
    3. Sleep: The Night Shift
    4. Food and Water: Fuel for the Guards
    5. Play, Laughter and Calm Breaths
    6. Being a Guard for Others
    7. Thank You, Breathing Guards
  • Afterword
  • For Grown-Ups: Reading and Talking Together
  • Quiz: How Much Do You Remember?
  • About the Information in This Book
  • Index
  • Colophon

From the publisher

A gentle, accurate science book that turns every breath into an adventure — and leaves children with habits that protect them for life.

Children ask big questions about their bodies, and this book answers one of the best: how do we stay healthy when the air is full of germs? Instead of a list of facts, it follows a single breath on a journey through the body, stopping at one part per chapter. Each stop introduces a different guard — the hairs and mucus of the nose, the reflexes of a sneeze, the tonsils, the little door of the epiglottis, the sweeping hairs of the windpipe, the cleaner cells of the lungs — so the whole system builds up naturally in a child's mind.

The explanations are clear without being childish. Comparisons a child already knows, such as a gate, an escalator, an upside-down tree and a red train, carry the ideas, and every chapter closes with a short list of key words that makes reviewing easy. Written for a parent and child to read together, it is just as comfortable for an older child reading alone, at about 190 pages over fifteen chapters.

The book stays calm and careful about health. Where illness comes up, it explains what the body is doing and reminds grown-ups to talk to a doctor about symptoms that worry them. Chapters on handwashing, vaccines, clean air and sleep show children how their everyday choices help their guards, without fear or lecturing.

What we like

  • One body part per chapter, so a large topic becomes easy to follow
  • Everyday comparisons and a key-word list at the end of each chapter
  • Careful, non-alarming wording
  • Good for reading aloud together and for older children reading alone

Recommended for

  • Children aged about 6 to 11 who love asking how the body works
  • Parents who want to explain colds, coughs and handwashing without scaring their children
  • Teachers and anyone looking for a clear introduction to the lungs and the immune system

Please talk to a doctor about any symptoms that concern you.

Read it in another language

You can buy any language edition on this page: choose it under “Language of the book” in the buy box above. Each language also has its own page.

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