POOP HAPPENED!

By Sarah Albee
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2077-1
Publisher: Walker & Company

FROM THE FLAP: Throughout the ages, the most successful civilizations were the ones who realized that everyone poops and they’d better figure out how to get rid of it! From the very first flushing toilet (invented way earlier than you would think) to the efficient Roman aqueducts (possibly inspired by the goddess of sewers!) to castles in the Middle Ages whose moats used more than just water to repel enemies, Poop Happened! traces human civilization through this revolting yet fascinating theme. Disgusting details about human hygiene give kids down and dirty answers to some enduring questions like:

Did lead pipes cause the fall of the Roman Empire?
How many toilets were in the average Egyptian pyramid?
How did a knight wearing fifty pounds of armor go to the bathroom?
Was poor hygiene the last straw before the French Revolution?
Did Thomas Crapper really invent the modern toilet?
How do astronauts “go” in space?

History will finally come out of the water closet in this exploration of how a human necessity shaped civilization from ancient times to the present. Bathroom reading has never been so engrossing!

AQUEDUCT RELAY RACES (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

Rome, and Edo(modern day Tokyo) used aqueduct to keep their water supplies free from waste which made their cities much cleaner and healthier than other cities in history. Divide the class into five teams. Give each person a twelve to eighteen inch piece of PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise. Each group should have one tennis ball. Each team needs to transport the tennis ball from the start line to the finish line without having the ball touch their hands or the floor/grass. If the ball falls or if it touches their hand, the team needs to go back to the start line. Special thanks to Matt Ettinger for this activity.

CITY PLANNERS (Visual/Spatial and Interpersonal)

Pair up students and ask them to pick a city mentioned in the book. Have one student draw a map of the city from the time period mentioned in the book while the other student draws a map of the modern day city. Maps should include information about waste treatment. Have the students present their maps and compare and contrast the two.

DIRTY DISEASES (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal)

Poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions spread disease throughout Europe. Divide the class into five small groups and have them each research a specific disease during a certain time period. Ask them to create a poster about the disease that includes information on how the disease spread and how that specific civilization dealt with the public health threat. Posters should include a map. Afterwards have them present their posters and ask class members to provide constructive critique on the group’s poster and presentation.

FAVORITE FACT TIMELINE (Logical/Mathematical, Kinesthetic, and Interpersonal)

Important facts and dates are sprinkled throughout the text. Ask each student to write down their favorite fact and the date it happened on a piece of paper. Then have them line up in class in chronological order.

GUESS WHO? (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Fun facts about famous people abound in Poop Happened! Each student will choose a famous person in the book and write five clues about his or her person of choice. Then, the student will dress up as the famous person and read his or her clues in front of the class. The other students will try and guess who the identity of the dressed-up student.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Canals and Aqueducts by Julie Richards
-City Planning in Ancient Times by Arthur Segal
-Sustainable Cities by Cheryl Jakab
-The Gross and Goofy Body Series by Melissa Stewart
-The World’s Deadliest Diseases by Tim O’Shei

Interview with VULTURE VIEW author, April Pulley Sayre

KN: Vulture View is filled with poetic elements such as alliteration, repetition, rhythm, and rhyme. Were all of these elements present in your first draft or did you add some as you revised your manuscript?

APS: Yes, those elements were present in the very first draft. I had been thinking, for years, about writing a book about flight and hawks. Vultures were in drafts of my hawk book. But then, one day, they took over. Or, should I say, I was watching vultures rise up over a rain forest in Panama when the words to the book came into my head. I heard, "The sun is rising, up, up. It heats the air up, up." Once I saw the connection between the sun coming up and the air rising up and the vultures rising up, I knew I had a book. The cadence and alliteration just unfolded. Of course, there were still many drafts to polish the language.

KN: On your website you talk about how in high school you took care of a young turkey vulture while working at a raptor rehabilitation center, and that later on you spotted them migrating through Panama. Did seeing the kettle migrate inspire you to write Vulture View?

APS: Yes, it started in Panama, although the book was not ultimately set in the rain forest. (Many of my other books, such as Meet the Howlers and Army Ant Parade are.)

KN: We tell students it’s important to use strong, “WOW” words while writing. Could you share some of the ways you sought out “WOW” words while writing Vulture View?

APS: Well, I do a lot of editing to eliminate fluff. So I guess my technique for writing with "wow" words is to eliminate all the "non-wow" words! I like concise, specific writing. I love active verbs.

KN: Please tell us about winning the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book award.

APS: Oh, wow. What can I say? The passionate, hard-working members of that award committee helped change my life. I'd been ill for months with whooping cough, cracked my ribs because of it. I was just barely healing, and had just that day, for the first time in months, gone out of the house, to see a movie with my husband. I could barely speak because my voice had been damaged by the whooping cough. Now, just imagine, how it feels in such a vulnerable state to find a message on the answering machine that some librarians at some conference have called. Hmm...strange. Yet, how nice that they like my books! Honestly, that in itself was lovely. I had no idea that it was awards time of year. But then they had called back and left a second message. What? I have won an award? A Theodor Geisel Honor Award? What? My favorite part was when the committee erupted into cheers in the background and said "Hurray, April!" I just stood there and listened to the message and cried with joy. It was particularly sweet because it came at such a tough time in my life. Of course, another great part of it is that the award for Vulture View is for both text and illustration. You know that the illustrator is the great Steve Jenkins. So that call, and all the happy messages and award hoopla, including the ALA conference, were a pleasure. My entire family, especially my nieces, made the most out of the entire thing. They loved the silver stickers on the books. Someone locally gave me a basket of gigantic vulture sugar cookies. Since then, I have been on t.v. talking to a T.V. (turkey vulture) puppet. So we've had a ball. I think we've perhaps changed a few people's attitudes about vultures, too.

KN: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with us?

APS: Well, I think it's an exciting time for nonfiction. There are many nonfiction authors experimenting with language and format. New nonfiction awards, and awards such as the Geisel, which have welcomed nonfiction, have helped bring these books to wider audiences.

KN: Thanks so much for the interview.

APS: Thanks for helping point out quality books and bring them to educators and to readers in general!

KN:Read the April 5th post for accompanying activities for VULTURE VIEW. I won't be posting a book of the week this week because it is spring break here in Massachusetts. I'll post a new book on the 25th. Have a great week!