Cells at Work! Picture Book 1: The Great Bacteria Vs. White Blood Cell Battle

by Kaci Wilson

As Red Blood Cell travels throughout the body where she works to deliver oxygen and carbon dioxide, a sudden attack from a group of pesky bacteria leaves her counting on a new friend, White Blood Cell, for help (note: Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell are capitalized when referring to specific characters but uncapitalized when referring to biological entities). Later, a sudden scrape almost leads to disaster until the day is saved by a group of platelets armed with coagulation factors. These are the adventures in Kumi Makimura’s Cells at Work! Picture Book 1: The Great Bacteria Vs. White Blood Cell Battle!, a kid-friendly reimagining of Akane Shimizu’s popular shōnen series, Cells at Work! The picture book is preceded by two other spinoffs of the original series: the Baby series by Yasuhiro Fukuda and the Code Black series by Shigemitsu Harada and Issei Hatsuyoshiya.

In Makimura’s educational manga—recommended for ages eight and up—fun and learning take center stage as characters from Cells at Work! guide the reader on a journey to learn about the human body while battling dastardly forces of evil (i.e., bacteria and viruses). Picture Book 1 begins with a biology lesson masquerading as character introductions for the Cells at Work! “friends”, equipping the reader with a basic understanding of the roles of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets before seeing the blood components in action.

Cells at Work! Picture Book 1, Our Cells at Work! Friends section, unpaginated

Divided into two chapters, the story focuses on medical topics that are sure to satisfy kids’ curiosity about the “why” behind some of the inner workings of the body. For anyone who ever questioned the purpose of a sneeze, Chapter 1 highlights the roles of neutrophils and sneezing when dangerous bacteria such as pneumococcus invade the body. In Chapter 2, a scrape causes a crater to appear and suck in nearby red blood cells, but platelets team up to use coagulation factors and fibrin to create a crater-plugging blood clot.

Cells at Work! Picture Book 1, Chapter 2: Scrapes, unpaginated

Rather than presenting an entirely new story, the Picture Book Series adapts chapters from the original manga for a younger audience. Battles between white blood cells and bacterial invaders tone down the original’s violence—a simple bonk on the head becomes White Blood Cell’s attack of choice rather than his usual knife from the original series for older readers—while preserving its engaging lessons about the body and immunology. Added features include bonus “Explore More” sections at the end of each chapter to dive further into the science behind the story and a maze activity that encourages kids to join the action by helping Red Blood Cell make a delivery of CO₂ to the lungs.

Cells at Work! Picture Book 1, Chapter 1: Sneezing, unpaginated

Care is taken to transform the work stylistically for a new audience. Makimura’s chibi style, which features miniature, child-like versions of characters, offers a fresh take on the Cells at Work! cast. With full-color illustrations and cute character designs, young readers will enjoy tagging along on the adventures of a relatable cast that presents each cell as recognizable in both appearance and personality. Kid-friendly details, such as panels enclosed in crayon frames, add to the appeal of the book, and the story is filled with visual metaphors that depict complex medical concepts with memorable imagery. A sneeze becomes a rocket that launches bacteria from the body. Bleeding becomes red blood cells falling into a sinkhole. Circulation becomes a package delivery system where boxes of oxygen and carbon dioxide are transported through the body. The end result is an age-appropriate, behind-the-scenes look at human biology that will leave kids excited to see what their new cell friends do next.

With action-packed scenes, relatable characters, and a story that never pushes science to the background, The Great Bacteria Vs. White Blood Cell Battle! is a strong addition to the canon of graphic medicine for kids. I highly recommend this book for any kid interested in stories about science, the human body, or simply fun characters teaming up against evildoers. Because the Cells at Work! Picture Book Series retains the right-to-left reading direction of the original Japanese series, it also serves as an excellent beginner manga to introduce young readers to the format. Fans can look forward to seeing a larger cast of cells join together against new foes when Cells at Work! Picture Book 2: The Dastardly Duo of Flu and Food Poisoning! releases later this year, and the fun will continue with the publication of Books 3 and 4 in 2027.

Kaci Wilson (she/her) is the Health Sciences and Systematic Review Librarian at the University at Albany. As librarians are wont to do, she wears many hats. Some of her favorites include empowering student researchers as an instruction librarian and supporting diverse uses of comics in higher education as a comics librarian.