Who Gives a Poop?: Surprising Science from One End to the Other

Scientists, engineers, veterinarians, even college students–people all over the world are discovering the power of poop. A guy in England powers a street lamp with pet poo. A scientist uses scat to solve the mystery of a vanishing cave-dwelling critter. Undergrads turn astronaut waste into plastic - for use as a wrench on Mars! Poop, doo-doo, scat, feces, whatever you call it, it’s everywhere. And it’s disgusting. But in this book, you’ll see that this waste is packed with potential. It’s a window into the world of wildlife, and some people are willing to go to extremes to make use of this so-called crap. One woman spent three months videotaping elephants, giraffes, and rhinos pooping in the zoo. In a quest for precious cheetah poo another scientist army-crawled through the mud risking her life between an adult elephant and a water buffalo. And every week an entire team of folks swallow their pride and deliver their own poop to medical facilities. There, someone swirls, separates, and ships it off to a hospital to be transplanted into another human.

In journalistic style similar to Something Rotten, this middle grade narrative nonfiction follows the author as she asks the question: Who uses poo? Although it is packed with potty humor, this narrative holds weighty matter too: The discovery of a nutrient cycle that powers the ocean ecosystem. Solutions for the energetic needs of our society. Poo even has the power to save human lives.