A fascinating history of the porcelain god and other sanitary (and unsanitary) practices.
Coverage of an essential hygienic appliance and what preceded it.
Starting with numbers (How much poop do humans produce?) and basic biological facts (What is poop, anyway?), the authors move briskly through highlights of the cultural and scientific story of our dealings with our excreta, from the Stone Age to the present, around the world. Unavoidably, there are gross moments, such as the Vikings’ very nasty parasites, and shocking ones, including the Mongols’ plague-spreading germ warfare, but these bits add to the thrill inherent in this material. Happily, the British Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole gets a small tribute for her work treating cholera; both she and John Snow, the first public-health detective, deserve to be better known, as does the Elizabethan inventor of the flush toilet. And the Chinese get credit for inventing both toilet paper and sewer pipes. We learn about the positive side of poop, which has uses in agriculture and as fuel. Modern sanitation methods are also described, and though future developments elude prediction, ingenious solutions for astronauts and Antarctic scientists might hold hints. Flat-color art with varied compositions is clear, instructive, amusing, and simplified but roughly accurate in depicting clothing and period settings. People throughout are racially diverse.
A fascinating history of the porcelain god and other sanitary (and unsanitary) practices. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 6-10)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781684493739
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Neon Squid/Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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