POOPENDOUS!

We all poop—humans and animals—so readers are urged to be strong and come along for this silly scoop on a subject most nasty.

In breezy and breathless rhyming couplets, Professor Pip Poopdeck, the safari-outfitted tour guide, tosses out euphemisms and factoids galore. From aardvarks to zebus, from flies to hippos and from raccoons to rabbits, all animals excrete in large and small amounts. Sometimes it becomes food, as when dung beetles feast on termite mounds. Sometimes it’s manure for farmers’ crops. In Mongolia, yak poop insulates local homes. Moran’s cartoon-inspired computer-generated imagery sets the tone with bug-eyed animals and people and a layout that often resembles postcards in an album. Poop is no doubt a poopular subject, but the title is misleading. Pigeon droppings cause illness and damage urban environments, among many other excrement-related problems. There is no information on human excrement and its role in devastating cholera epidemics. Nor is there any note about E. coli bacteria, another current cause for concern. A more balanced presentation of information would better serve readers.

Despite the interest, the treatment is too limited to be useful.