Author Dory Maust

Introduction:

Hi, I'm Ivy, a Neutrophil, which is a white blood cell. This is my partner, T lymphocyte, but you can
just call him T. We are part of your immune system, and our kingdom is a human body. What
does that mean? I'm glad you asked!

Let's say your body is a castle, okay? On a good day, everything is fine. You feel happy, you have
a lot of energy, and you have a great appetite. I love days like those, don't you? The castle has a
draw bridge and large doors such as your mouth and trap doors like skin abrasions and
wounds. They let a lot of very good things into your castle, like nutrients. Sometimes bad things
can get inside too, like germs and bacteria. When bad things get in, your Brain, the kingdom’s
highest power, sends a messenger to the rooms where your immune system lives.

The immune system is the army of the castle, and we protect the kingdom by killing infection, the
enemy. Infection can be very mean. Wait until you see T breathe fire. It's so cool! The messenger
sounds an alarm when infection is in the castle, and I prepare for battle. There are millions of
white blood cells in the kingdom. Sometimes if the infection has a lot of soldiers with it, we have
to get more too. And guess what? We can multiply. One million of us become two million! Then
all of the sudden we fly from our rooms with our swords drawn and ready to fight!

Sometimes we can win the battles on our own. Other times we need help from Medicine. She is
a powerful lady with many helpers such as Antibiotic, Anti-histamine, Acetaminophen and
Ibuprofen. Together we fight until we kill infection. I know this might sound complicated so pay
attention to the Glossary. You can look up word definitions any time.

Now, let me tell you a story about one battle…