Book excerpt: Watch Your Mouth! Discover What’s Alive Inside Right now billions and billions of fungi, bacteria and viruses are coating your tongue, scumming up your teeth and flavoring your breath. There are more microbes in your mouth than there are people on earth. Horrible? Maybe. Healthy? For sure! Your mouth is home to amazing mix of tiny critters. Because it’s wet, warm cave, washed with a constant food supply it’s a perfect place for microbes to thrive. Worried? Don’t be. In fact, having a good mix of microbes keeps you healthy. So open wide and discover, experiment, observe. Get friendly with your billions of secret micro pals. This book tells you how and why you will want to Watch Your Mouth! This book is for middle grade readers (ages 9-12) and educators. It is a lighthearted look inside your mouth. It is also serious science, vetted by research scientists. New discoveries about how microbes affect human health have gotten a lot of media attention. Very little is written for kids about how microbes affect human health. The mouth is microbe hotspot, and a great place to introduce children to the idea that their microbes matter. Having a happy, healthy mouth IS a hands on activity. This books tells how.