There's not a ton about middle school that I remember, but this guy was kind of unforgettable!

It was Mr. Whitney's 5th-grade science class at the Asa C. Adams school in Orono, when I was first introduced to the character of Slim Goodbody. I remember he was a curly-haired man, wearing a unitard with organs and bones painted on the front of it. I remember he sang ... a lot ... and had really clever songs about the body's systems. I remember vividly a little vignettes about how digestion works and why you shouldn't bite your nails.

As a kid, I actually learned a lot about health and biology from Slim. And later in life, after I'd had a gaggle of kids of my own, and was homeschooling them, I used the Slim Goodbody videos as part of our health curriculum.

Recently, as J. Stew and I were talking about what parts of our childhood we'd share with this new generation, Slim's name came up again. Which got me thinking, and then digging into Google to see what he's been up to all these years. To my surprise, I found that the man behind Slim Goodbody, John Burstein, lives right here in Lincolnville, Maine!

So naturally, I called him. And graciously he answered, and was willing to let me fan-girl, I mean chat about all sorts of Slim related things! One of the coolest things to come out of the conversation was the knowledge that all these years later, Burstein's Slim is still helping kids understand the issue of health. And in times like these, he's a perfect person to help deliver the age-appropriate, non-anxiety inducing information about COVUD-19 to kids across the world. Burstein has authored several Slim Goodbody books, but his latest, "A Kid's Guide To COVID-19" and accompanying video (click below to watch) addresses today's health crisis directly. The book should be available later this week.

If you're interested, here's part of the interview I did with Slim/Burstein. He talks about how the character came to be, that iconic unitard and what he hopes his latest endeavor will provide to kids and parents alike.

For reference, clip #1 tells his background and how he got started, the second is about that awesome unitard, and lastly, clip #3 is about his new book for kids and parents about COVID-19.

Below is his new piece geared for kids about the COVID-19 conversation.

Check out more Slim Goodbody videos here on his YouTube Channel.