Poopy Science: Getting to the Bottom of What Comes Out Your Bottom

How can I write a review for an amazing book that is all crap? If it is Poopy Science: Getting to the Bottom of What Comes Out Your Bottom, the latest in the “Gross Science Series”, it is easy. Bottom line, this book is so gross it’s a must have.

Author Edward Kay and illustrator Mike Shiell have again teamed up, this time to use their hilarious sense of humour to make a book filled with facts on one of this age level’s favourite topics. The title, alone, is going to be enough to make this book fly off the bookshelves.

If you have any doubts about whether this book will appeal to young readers, check the chapter titles.

The Scoop on Poop!
The Scoop on Your Poop
What to Do with All That Poo?
Species and Feces
Don’t Waste Your Waste!

The subheadings are equally punny, such as “Too Mush of a Good Thing”, “Poop Soup?”, “Crappy Nappies”, “Flaming Farts and Exploding Excreta!”, “Who Flung the Dung?”, and “Urine Luck!”.

Shiell’s cartoon-style art is the perfect complement to Kay’s punny text. But don’t overlook the well-researched content of Poopy Science: Getting to the Bottom of What Comes Out Your Bottom.
In the chapter “Species and Feces”, readers learn that, in addition to the biological reasons for pooping and peeing, some animals “also use their excreta to send each other messages.” (p. 22)

River otters are experts at smelly signals. They flatten the vegetation along a riverbank, then use it as a giant latrine, creating a poop field that can be seen - and smelled - by rival otters. (p. 22)

The illustration shows a river otter road crew with construction equipment and a flag otter controlling the traffic at the construction site, a field by a river.

The final chapter, “Don’t Waste Your Waste!”, includes a look at developments such as using poop as fuel and poop in space.

These days, astronauts no longer have to float around with bags taped to their butts, snatching wayward turds out of the air. On the International Space Station, crew members strap themselves to a toilet that uses a giant vacuum-like device to suck their poop into a storage canister. (p. 41)

I can’t resist ending with a quote from the publicity material. “Flush with engrossing facts and loaded with silly puns, this book belongs in every bathroom.” Make that every home, classroom and library. This one’s a winner.