Although the number of topics covered [in Exploring the Brain] results in short shrift being accorded some, this is a good overview of what is known about the human brain; some aspects of the subject have been accorded full texts (sleep, drugs, morphology of the brain) in books for children and young people, but this gives coverage of these subjects in adequate, if superficial, fashion. The authors describe the functions of the brain and the nervous system, going into especially fascinating details about areas of the brain that have been studied and mapped. Some of the ancillary aspects, such as how the functioning of the brain is affected by drugs or illness, are made clearer by the citing of laboratory experiments. It is, however, in the compilation of findings of recent research that the text is strongest.