A Map of the Child: A Pediatrician's Tour of the Body

"A delightful, quirky, awe-inspiring journey . . . Sanghavi is a vivid and effortless teller of human tales and quite evidently a special doctor, too." --Atul Gawande, author of Complications

In this compelling book, Dr. Darshak Sanghavi takes the reader on a dramatic tour of a child's eight vital organs, beginning with the lungs and proceeding through the heart, blood, bones, brain, skin, gonads, and gut.

Along the way, we meet children and families in extraordinary circumstances--a premature baby named Adam Flax who was born with undeveloped lungs, a teenage boy with a positive pregnancy test, and a young girl who keeps losing weight despite her voracious appetite. In a deeply personal narrative, Sanghavi provides a richly detailed--and humanized--portrait of how the pediatric body functions in both sickness and health.