What Is
T ouc h
?
Jennifer Boothroyd
For my
husband, Don
Copyright 2010 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing
Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.
Lerner Publications Company
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Website address: www.lernerbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boothroyd, Jennifer, 1972
What is touch? / by Jennifer Boothroyd.
p. cm. (Lightning bolt booksTMYour amazing senses)
Includes index.
ISBN 9780761342526 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)
1. TouchJuvenile literature. I. Title.
QP451.B66 2010
612.88dc22 2008051587
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 BP 15 14 13 12 11 10
eISBN: 978-0-7613-8896-8
Contents
page
page
page
page
page
page
page
page
page
page
Gathering
Information
Have you ever petted a dog
or a cat? What did the fur
feel like?
What about a pet lizard or a
turtle? How do those feel?
You can tell
what something
feels like by
touching it.
You can tell what
a starfish feels
like by running
your hand along
its surface.
Touchingisoneofyourfivesenses.
You use your skin to
touch things.
You can tell what sand
feels like by sifting it
through your fingers.
Your sense of touch
helps you learn
about the world. It
can also protect you
from danger.
Your
Skin
and
Nerves
You have thousands of
nerves in your skin.
The nerves in your
skin allow you to
feel water flowing
over your hands.
Your nerves can sense
temperature, pain, pressure,
and texture.
Nerves can detect
the fuzzy texture
of a peach.
The nerves send
information
about these
things to your
brain.
Your nerves send
your brain all kinds
of information about
everything you touch.
Mostpeopleusetheirhandstotouch.
Hands are
perfectly designed
for picking up
objects like this
spiky sea urchin!
But you can touch things with
your feet, your nose, or even
your elbows because you have
nerves all over your body.
Temperature
Your nerves
can sense if
something is
hot or cold.
Thanks to your
nerves, you can
sense heat seeping
through a mug.
Anicecubeisfreezing.
Your forehead gets hot when
you have a fever.
Pain
Some things
we touch can
cause us pain.
Look out!
Touching a cactus
can be painful.
Tight shoes can
pinch your toes.
A pan on the
stove can
burn you.
You should never touch a
stove or anything on a
stove. Stoves can burn
you even when you think
they are turned off.
Your sense of pain tells you
to stop. It keeps you from
getting hurt even more.
Your sense of
pain can warn you
if a food is too
hot to eat.
Pressure
Your skin feels pressure when
something pushes on it.
Holding friends
hands puts pressure
on your skin.
Youfeelsqueezedwhenyourgrandpagivesyouabighug.
You can feel it when your
grandma kisses your cheek.