For youngsters, the age of exploration usually...

For youngsters, the age of exploration usually begins at home--with their bodies. This month, there’s a posse of books that will enhance their field trips.

3-D Kid is a good starting place. This full-color three-dimensional wall chart is life-sized (kid life-sized) and folds out to reveal a detailed, beautifully illustrated child’s body.

Bones, muscles, blood vessels and organs are realistic and labeled for easy identification. It can also be read like a book; open the front to see the middle of the body, the back cover to see the head, etc. When they tire of reading it, it makes a great wall display.

My First Body Book approaches anatomy from the questions kids ask: Why do we yawn? How long would our intestines be if we stretched them?

There are more than 150 photographs and illustrations and a fold-out acetate section that peels away to show the inner systems of the body. Of particular interest are the activity ideas, ranging from drawing a body map to building a stethoscope.

(FYI: We yawn to get more air into our bodies, and stretched intestines are nearly 25 feet long.)

Another offering, The Visual Dictionary of the Skeleton, takes the concept a step further with a thorough look at all kinds of skeletons, from human to plant, from arthropods to amphibians.

The uncredited artwork is excellent and illuminating, and the text clearly compares and contrasts the differences among the widely different groups.

Once they are hooked, you can ease them into the Concise Encyclopedia of the Human Body, a solid reference book that will be useful right through college.

There are 2,000 entries and more than 400 full-color photographs, illustrations and diagrams to explain the mysteries of the human body in all its weirdness and wonderfulness. The entries are organized alphabetically and thematically for easy cross-referencing.

All of these are well worth the investment. Try to remember that when you start paying the bills for junior’s med school.

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Another small publisher carving out a niche--in this case by offering a solid series of books targeting the computer savvy--is the Coriolis Group of Scottsdale, Ariz. Its latest offering, Free $tuff for Science Buffs: The Amazing Mr. Science’s Guide to the Universe, is interesting in and of itself for the straightforward explanations of the world of science by Barry Young, the modest fellow in the book’s subtitle.

But the book’s real treasure is its list of freebies on the Internet, World Wide Web, online services and snail mail (the postal system). A few examples, among many: How to retrieve the latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope, a guide to “build your own A-bomb” Web sites, where to get plans to build kites and telescopes, a spot filled with tips for tornado chasers and Web site that has a three-dimensional computer simulation of the Northridge earthquake.

With a little luck, you can ween the kid away from “Doom.”

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3-D KID, Designed and engineered by Roger Culbertson, illustrated by Robert Margulies, with an assist from medical consultant Margaret M. Mahon (Scientific American Books for Young Readers: $19.95)

MY FIRST BODY BOOK, By Chris and Melanie Rice (Dorling Kindersley: $16.95)

THE VISUAL DICTIONARY OF THE SKELETON, By Richard Walker (Dorling Kindersley: $16.95)

CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HUMAN BODY, By David Burnie (Dorling Kindersley: $19.95)

FREE $TUFF FOR SCIENCE BUFFS: THE AMAZING MR. SCIENCE’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE, By Barry Young (Coriolis Group: $19.99)