THE TRUTH ABOUT POOP
by Susan E. Goodman & illustrated by Elwood H. Smith
Declaring that “it’s time take poop out of the closet,” Goodman plops factual pellets from human and natural history alike into topical chapters covering dung’s nature; production; varieties; uses in love, war, and, yes, sports; the development of flushing toilets (pointedly scrubbing the myth that Thomas Crapper was solely responsible); toilet paper; and urban waste reclamation. Smith takes on the subject with appropriate lack of gravity, adding lots of small, pop-eyed animals and people amid flushes of comic-strip dingbats. The author brings up the rear with recommended paper and web resources. A steaming pile of fun, redolent of wide-ranging research but most suited to recreational dipping, and a fine lead-in to Masoff’s monumental Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty, illustrated by Terry Sirrell (2000). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)