Whose Poop Is That?

November 21, 2016
Guess the poop! Repeating the question of the title, Lunde and Oseid ask readers to identify six kinds of animal scat (plus an owl pellet), providing images of the droppings, animal tracks, and brief descriptions as clues. “Whose poop is that? It has a bunch of splinters in it,” Lunde asks, opposite what looks like a pile of pickles. The answer: a panda. “A panda eats mostly bamboo,” he continues. “A panda has to spend most of its day eating in order to get enough energy.” In unflashy, mixed-media artwork, Oseid highlights animals that include a red fox, African elephant, Galápagos tortoise, and gull, as well as their environments. Gross-out details will provoke glee (“A rabbit sometimes eats its poop in order to digest its food twice”) but kids will learn plenty about the variety and importance of animal waste, too. Ages 3–7.

December 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 2-Giggles, gasps, and guffaws will surely follow when a book about poop is discovered on the library shelf. A wide variety of poo is tackled, from elephants' to pandas', all accompanied by the question, "Whose poop is that?" Readers are urged to study the pen-and-ink drawings with computerized coloration to guess which animal the droppings come from. Clues come in the form of bits of identifiable food. For instance, the panda's droppings contain bamboo splinters. The soft illustrations enhance the featured food fibers, and the text departs from the routine with a spread on the fossilized poop of an extinct ground sloth and one that asks, "Is that a poop?" in reference to an owl pellet. Additional facts about poop and notable animal waste ("Wombat poop is square!") are provided in the end pages. Silly but educational, this selection gets readers to realize that much can be learned through observation when out on a nature walk. VERDICT Sure to appeal to curious youngsters. Recommended for collections that can't get enough titles on poop.-Sandra Welzenbach, Villarreal Elementary School, San Antonio

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016
Owl pellets, coprolites, bird droppings, and honking big turds--whose waste is that?Lunde uses a question-and-answer format to show how animal droppings vary and how they relate to animals' diets. This picture book may seem slight, covering only seven animals (fox, African elephant, panda, owl, Galapagos tortoise, gull, and the extinct ground sloth), but it reflects a careful choice of examples demonstrating the wide variety of animal diets, eating styles, and defecation habits. Four pages are devoted to each animal. The first double-page spread shows a series of footprints and a mysterious object, asks the title question (or a variant), and describes the object. The page turn reveals the animal, pictured in its habitat. A short paragraph tells why the poop contains what readers see. Feces fans can find further information in two pages of backmatter, "The Scoop on Poop" and "Animal Poop Facts." Oseid's illustrations, done in pen and ink and colored digitally, have shadows suggesting the three-dimensionality of the droppings and pleasing, soothing color choices. For a younger audience than most recent titles about animal excrement, this might make a nice pair with Taro Gomi's classic Everyone Poops (2001). A primer on poop and a guessing game, especially for those just beyond toilet training. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

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December 1, 2016
Preschool-G This picture book delivers exactly what its title promisesan examination of excrement, which also reveals a little something about the animal that left it behind. An opening two-page spread pairs the question Whose poop is that? with an illustration and description of a particular dropping. This sample might contain twigs and stems, old leaves, or bones and fur, for example. Once readers turn the page, the answer is revealed, along with some facts about the poop or the animal's diet. Whose poo is full of splinters? A panda's, due to its constant bamboo munching. Oseid's pen-and-ink illustrations are digitally colored, giving clear yet stylized renderings of the seven animals and droppings in question, including a coprolite (fossilized dung) and one trick poop (what is it really?!). A final spread gives bulleted Scoop on Poop and Animal Poop Facts lists for more detailed information. The kid-friendly illustrations and matter-of-fact tone make this title an informative, rather than a gross-out, pick, though that is certainly what will get kids reaching for the shelves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)