Product Description

We call it a waste product, but poop can also be bricks to build a house, fuel to power a trip to Mars, wipes for a baby’s bottom, buttons for your next sweater. Poop? YES! POP! And that’s not all. Birds drop it as bombs. Mole-rats use it as a password. Sharks track their prey with it. People cook with it, sculpt with it, and even use it as a Frisbee! While we politely avoid the subject, amazing things are happening in digestive tracts all over the world. Kids (and adults too!) will be captivated by the astounding facts contained in this fascinating book, featuring hilarious illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154221 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780142409305
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Step aside, Walter the Farting Dog. Science writer Goodman (Claws, Coats, and Camouflage) deserves a round of applause, and no raspberries, for demystifying a risky topic. With a winning combination of scientific curiosity and amusement, the intrepid author dives into her research. In a section titled "How Much?/How Often?," she gladly reveals the private matters of sloths, geese and bears. She finds that a skipper caterpillar "shoot[s] its poop... six feet" to misdirect predators, and that sharks hunt by scent (castaways should "poop in the life raft"). She chronicles human error and ingenuity in sewage disposal ("British plumber Thomas Crapper... certainly had the best name for the job" in creating the flush toilet, but was not its sole inventor), and she explores toilet paper substitutes from corncobs to a "cheap book of poetry" to "the frayed end of old anchor cables" aboard ships. In addition, she explains paleontologists' professional interest in "chunks of fossilized poop" called coprolites, suggests multiple uses for cow patties (kindling, Frisbees, bedding), discusses astronauts' euphemistic "maximum absorption garments" (aka diapers) and reveals military-strategic applications for "Dangerous Poop." While Goodman delivers the straight stuff about international and U.S. bathroom practices, demonstrating that scrupulous research can be fun, Smith (Raise the Roof!) creates vaudevillean cartoons that suggest their steamy subject but don't get too close. This scatological documentary could make a splash. Ages 7-up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5–Chock-full of intriguing, gross, and bizarre facts about animal and human excrement, Goodman's free-range text discusses everything from Tyrannosaurus rex dung to the evolution of toilet paper. The three main sections outline animal elimination practices, the processes of human excretion and plumbing, and helpful uses for poop (e.g., for fertilizer or scientific research). While the quirky organization and lack of an index may not make this a useful resource for research, the subject matter will capture kids' attention and draw reluctant readers. Even though the cover illustration of an elephant on a chamber pot may make browsers think it is a potty-training book, the rest of Smith's retro cartoons in muted colors provide humor without being too gross. This is Taro Gomi's Everyone Poops (Kane/Miller, 1995) for the "Captain Underpants" (Scholastic) set.–Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. It's time to bring poop out of the (water) closet, and Goodman does just that in a book that is very readable, appropriately visual, and exceedingly encompassing. Among the topics: how much and how often (for both humans and animals); the process of elimination; the history of the toilet and toilet paper; the sewage system; and the ever-popular subject of waste in space. The suspiciously named chapters "Poop Games" and "Poop Presents" talk about chip throws and gifts made from moose dung. There's even a page on--sorry--poop as food. Despite its giggle-provoking subject matter, the book is never sensational, treating excrement as the very normal topic that it is. The well-executed cartoon artwork successfully goes for the clever, but sometimes plays it close to the edge, as when Father Rabbit says, motioning to the main course, "No poop, no dessert." Naturally, kids will find all this marvelously gross, but along with the yuks, they'll get plenty of information. Even the endpapers are filled with facts: the ancient Romans had a goddess for toilets and sewers. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Here's the scoop on poop...
...it's a slam-dunk for this age group. My 12 year-old son, who generally considers himself "too old" for picture books, picked this one up and was immediately intrigued. It's got just the right blend of humor, straightforward information, and gee-whiz facts. (Did you know that the ancient Romans used pigeon poop to bleach their hair? Me neither!) The author does a fantastic job of explaining the science behind a topic that (like it or not) is of great interest to most kids. Not to mention a good many adults.

Fascinating Science
The title is self-explanatory, and don't sniff and turn away from this one. (Pardon the pun.) It makes for fascinating reading even for the most fastidious reader. Although her touch is light, and it's impossible to read the book without grinning, Susan never goes for the cheap shot. She chuckles without smirking. Chapter headings include: Useful Poop, History of the Toilet Parts 1 and 2, Dung Dispatch, and Poop Power. Having trouble getting third or fourth graders to read a book? Put this one on the table and see how long it takes before a group of kids (probably boys) are gathered around absorbing scientific information.

Great Bathroom Reading !
The Truth About Poop is filled with just the right balance of factual
information and humor. It is listed as a book for ages 9 and up and,
while it no doubt would appeal to even younger readers (thanks to the
ageless zaniness of Elwood Smith's humorous illustrations), it will
definitely be a hit with older kids, right on up to full-blown adults
of any age.

The book is filled with oddball facts about animals and insects that
use poop as disguise, temperature control and sexual attraction. The
history of the modern toilet is covered (not with a terry cloth cover,
however) along with other inventive ways humans have found to dispose
of and use their solid bodily waste.

Many books of this ilk gravitate to gross jokes. However, Susan Goodman
and Elwood Smith have used a higher grade of humor and good taste to
create this wonderful book on a topic that is often avoided or merely
joked about.

A super pooper gift for anyone's bathroom.
The Truth About Poop is filled with just the right balance of factual
information and humor. It is listed as a book for ages 9 and up and,
while it no doubt would appeal to even younger readers (thanks to the
ageless zaniness of Elwood Smith's humorous illustrations), it will
definitely be a hit with older kids, right on up to full-blown adults
of any age.

The book is filled with oddball facts about animals and insects that
use poop as disguise, temperature control and sexual attraction. The
history of the modern toilet is covered (not with a terry cloth cover,
however) along with other inventive ways humans have found to dispose
of and use their solid bodily waste.

Many books of this ilk gravitate to gross jokes. However, Susan Goodman
and Elwood Smith have used a higher grade of humor and good taste to
create this wonderful book on a topic that is often avoided or merely
joked about.

A super pooper gift for anyone's bathroom.