The Clue Is In the Poop

A good cookbook for middle grade and up, does not talk down to the reader, and gives them the information they need to bake a cake, or cookies, just as adult cook books do.

And tracking book, as in tracking animals, do the same thing, or at least they should. In this case, not only did they give you all the information you need to track animals, but they also warn you which ones you probably shouldn’t be tracking and why.

The book is sectioned off with the different ways you can tell what animals has been by, from poop, as the title says, to feathers, to foot prints to nest to eggs.

The pictures are very clear, as in you can really see the poop and other stuff.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4735" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-18-at-9.25.49-AM.png" alt="Clue in the poop, rules" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4731" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-18-at-9.35.46-AM.png" alt="The Clue is in the Poop, feathers" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4732" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-18-at-9.33.49-AM.png" alt="The Clue is in the Poop dangerous" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4733" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-18-at-9.32.09-AM.png" alt="Clue in the poop, tracks" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4734" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-18-at-9.27.10-AM.png" alt="Clue int he poop, well, poop" />

Thoroughly enjoyable and informative book for junior dectives in the field. Good for schools teaching about animals, because, of course, what kid doesn’t like to find out a poop. Also good for libraries and home.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

A very interesting and funny guide book about different animals and their poo. I found the illustrations in this book very funny yet very appropriate. This book is aimed towards 5 to 11 year olds, but I recommend it for the upper end of this age group as I read this book with my niece and nephew (5 & 6) and according to their mum all they talked about was poo after we had read this book.  Overall I highly recommend it.

Using gross things like poop or mucus to engage young readers isn't new. To be honest, though, this book isn't all that gross. It's a fairly clinical exploration of an animal's leavings. We are told in simple terms what we can assume about a creature based on poop, foot prints, trails, and other signs. And not just specific "this is what a deer track looks like". It looks at generalizations too. Like the sorts of animals that produce small, hard, pellety poop versus larger, softer, elongated poop. Or what a foot print's general shape and positioning can tell us about the type of animal that left it and the speed at which it was moving. Seed is encouraging readers to really observe and scrutinize the world around them and to investigate connections between those observations. Includes general safety and ecology tips.