What do your blood and the city of Venice have in common? They both operate the same way: Just like this floating city, your blood moves in a circular maze through your body, 24 hours a day, traveling down ever-smaller byways. But blood can also move fast (it takes a blood cell 20-60 seconds to make a round trip through your heart). Ready to set sail on a memorable voyage, all the while learning about blood? The awesome adventure starts with the components of blood and how certain organs help it do many different things, like flush out waste and deliver nutrients to your cells. Also featured: how cuts heal, how blood is made, and what causes bruises.

Learning about blood types is a cinch with easy graphs and charts, and a cartoon, showing the fight to the finish that takes place in your bloodstream when invaders like germs stage a takeover, lends itself to role-playing games in the classroom. Data on various blood diseases and killer viruses will thrill kids who are into horror and disaster flicks, and then it’s time for learning about blood in the animal kingdom, which comes in a rainbow of colors and can even have a type of “antifreeze” in it – in the case polar fish.