Darrin Lunde is the collection manager in the Division of Mammals
at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in
Washington, D.C. He's written several books for children, including
the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book Hello, Bumblebee Bat, as well
as Hello, Baby Beluga, and Meet the Meerkat. Darrin lives near
Washington, D.C.
Kelsey Oseid works in both traditional and digital mediums and
often mixes the two to create her illustrations. This is her first
book for young readers. Kelsey lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Owl pellets, coprolites, bird droppings, and honking big
turds—whose waste is that?
Lunde uses a question-and-answer format to show how animal
droppings vary and how they relate to animals' diets. This picture
book may seem slight, covering only seven animals (fox, African
elephant, panda, owl, Galápagos tortoise, gull, and the extinct
ground sloth), but it reflects a careful choice of examples
demonstrating the wide variety of animal diets, eating styles, and
defecation habits. Four pages are devoted to each animal. The first
double-page spread shows a series of footprints and a mysterious
object, asks the title question (or a variant), and describes the
object. The page turn reveals the animal, pictured in its habitat.
A short paragraph tells why the poop contains what the readers see.
Feces fans can find further information in two pages of backmatter,
"The Scoop on Poop" and "Animal Poop Facts." Oseid's illustrations,
done in pen and ink and colored digitally, have shadows suggesting
the three-dimensionality of the droppings and pleasing, soothing
color choices. For a younger audience than most recent titles about
animal excrement, this might make a nice pair with Taro Gomi's
classic Everyone Poops (2001).
A primer on poop and a guessing game, especially for those just
beyond toilet training.
—Kirkus Reviews
Guess the poop! Repeating the question of the title, Lunde and
Oseid ask readers to identify six kinds of animal scat (plus an owl
pellet), providing images of the droppings, animal tracks, and
brief descriptions as clues. "Whose poop is that? It has a bunch of
splinters in it," Lunde asks, opposite what looks like a pile of
pickles. The answer: a panda. "A panda eats mostly bamboo," he
continues. "A panda has to spend most of its day eating in order to
get enough energy." In unflashy, mixed-media artwork, Oseid
highlights animals that include a red fox, African elephant,
Galápagos tortoise, and gull, as well as their environments.
Gross-out details will provoke glee ("A rabbit sometimes eats its
poop in order to digest its food twice") but kids will learn plenty
about the variety and importance of animal waste, too.
—Publishers Weekly
The can-you-guess format, so often put to engaging effect in
science-focused picture books, works well here in an introductory
brainteaser on animal droppings. Each bit of scat gets a four-page
spread: the titular question, with animal tracks; the, ahem, main
event, with a brief description (“It has bits of bone and a tuft of
fur in it”); and a full-bleed spread with the animal and an
explanation of how its poop came by its unique composition (“A red
fox eats small mammals and birds. It crunches their bones and
swallows their fur or feathers”). Though inconsistent scale and
oversimplification of the footprints often put guessers at a
disadvantage, pictures are sufficiently simplified and stylized to
help viewers focus on the essentials. The succinct text, in
slightly oversized sans serif font, makes this as accessible to
newly independent readers as it is to younger listeners, and
everyone with an interest in the unflushed will be intrigued by the
back end matter (pun fully intended)—bullet- pointed “The Scoop on
Poop” and “Animal Poop Facts.”
—BCCB Reviews
This picture book delivers exactly what its title promises—an
examination of excrement, which also reveals a little something
about the animal that left it behind. An opening two-page spread
pairs the question "Whose poop is that?" with an illustration and
description of a particular dropping. This sample might contain
twigs and stems, old leaves, or bones and fur, for example. Once
readers turn the page, the answer is revealed, along with some
facts about the poop or the animal's diet. Whose poo is full of
splinters? A panda's, due to its constant bamboo munching. Oseid's
pen-and-ink illustrations are digitally colored, giving clear yet
stylized renderings of the seven animals and droppings in question,
including coprolite (fossilized dung) and one trick poop (what is
it really?!). A final spread gives bulleted "Scoop on Poop" and
"Animal Poop Facts" lists for more detailed information. The
kid-friendly illustrations and matter-of-fact tone make this title
an informative, rather than a gross-out, pick, though is certainly
what will get kids reaching for the shelves.
—Booklist
Although animals in nature can most readily be identified by sight,
evidence of their presence can also be found in the scat they leave
behind. Lunde leverages children’s fascination with poop to
introduce how these identifications are made. In a series of
four-page sequences, the title question is asked: “Whose poop is
that?” alongside a facing, up-close illustration of animal scat and
a sentence pointing out key features. Turn the page, and the animal
is revealed, along with brief additional information. For example:
“Whose poop is that? / It has bits of bone and a tuft of fur in it.
// A red fox’s. / A red fox eats small mammals and birds. It
crunches their bones and swallows their fur or feathers.” Others
include a panda, gull, and even the fossilized scat of the extinct
ground sloth; one of the sequences breaks the pattern somewhat with
a slightly different question (“Is that a poop?”) to feature a
regurgitated owl pellet. Both the text and digitally colored
pen-andink illustrations appear simpler than they are: they are
accurate, and include just enough detail to highlight the keys to
identification while remaining friendly and inviting to novice
naturalists. A spread of additional bulleted facts is appended.
—The Horn Book
DUNG, DOO–DOO, SCAT, GUANO. However you say it, it’s all “poop”.
But what’s so fascinating about it? Why are so many people
intrigued about this natural process? Utilizing carefully
selected animals in a question–answer format, author Darrin Lunde
challenges our animal droppings IQ in his latest book, Whose Poop
is That?. Highlighting the animal’s diet using interesting facts,
animal tracks, and visual clues, you can guess what the animal may
be or just turn the page to find out. From one–foot–high poop,
cubed–shaped poop, and the bird that makes a nest out of poop, it’s
all gross, but cool! The scientific facts are presented in an
engaging way for young readers to understand and want to know more
about it. So what are you waiting for? Come get the “scoop on
poop”!
—NSTA Recommends
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