“You are mostly not you,” microbial ecologist Rob Knight wrote in his fascinating exploration of the human microbiome, in which he pointed out that only 1% of the genes in our bodies are human and the remaining 99% are microbial. It’s a staggering realization even for grownups, so how are tiny humans to grapple with these tiny organisms and their enormous impact on us and the rest of life? That’s what zoologist and children’s book author Nicola Davies explores in Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes (public library), with gorgeous art by English illustrator Emily Sutton — a marvelous addition to the best children’s books celebrating science.

The book is a clever exercise in scale, enlisting our human solipsism in understanding life-forms radically different from us by placing them in a comparative human context — for instance, a single drop of seawater can contain up to twenty million microbes, which Davies points out is about the same as the number of residents of New York State, and a teaspoon of soil can be populated by a billion microbes, comparable to the number of humans populating all of India.

Young readers are invited to explore the astonishing diversity of microbes in both form and function, not only relative to us — some make us sick, and some make us healthy — but relative to one another.

Sutton’s sensibility was greatly influenced by a single visit to the American Folk Art Museum in New York, which left her enchanted with the aesthetic of folk art. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her vibrant illustrations call to mind beloved mid-century creative duo Alice and Martin Provensen, who honed their craft on countless folk tales and fables.

Complement Tiny Creatures with a grownup tale of how microbes are redefining what it means to be human, then treat yourself and the young human in your life to more stimulating science books for kids, including a coloring book about evolution, the story of how Persian polymath Ibn Sina shaped modern medicine, and an allegory of quantum physics based on Alice in Wonderland.