Poopendous!

Blue Apple Books 

Artie Bennett; Illustrations by Mike Moran

Artie Bennett is following up his first success, The Butt Book, with one written about a parallel subject. I can see how some parents might judge these books as juvenile or silly based on the titles, but kids won't see them that way. Maybe poop or butts wouldn't be my number one choice (but definitely number two!) for reading material, but I'm no longer under twelve. Kids absolutely adore these books, and I love anything that gets children reading.

Everything (and then some) you ever wanted to know about poop! The appropriately named Professor P. Poopdeck leads readers on an enlightening tour, from humans to pets, to wild animals of all different kinds. Yup, they all poop, but in all sorts of different ways. Birds poop in the sky - thank goodness elephants don't. It may be straight poop for humans, but it's pellets from rabbits, tubes from raccoons, cubes from wombats, and dung when it become a beetle snack.

This book reminds me of the classic Everyone Poops, but with humor! Artie Bennett can use all the funny phrases, rhyming text, and imaginative illustrations he wants, but he cannot quite conceal how informative this book is. This is clever enough to have children giggling, but also contains enough well-presented facts to appease parents.

My personal favorite is the souvenir stand set up hawking moose poop transformed into jewelry and wall art. Man, I hope that is fictional and not a real stand someone stumbled across on their vacation. But readers have plenty of pages from which to choose their favorite: monkeys flinging dung, flies letting loose under the microscope, raccoons pooping onto wombats ... it's all here!      

Review copy provided by Artie Bennett.