Poop

Let's face it: For a certain young demographic, potty talk is comedy gold. In Poppy Champignon's Poop, the toilet humor reaches lofty new heights--or is it lows?

It starts with a word: "Poop," a raccoon tells a mouse, apropos of nothing. "Nope, coop," replies the mouse one page later, and it's true--raccoon and mouse are shown standing in front of a chicken coop. The raccoon tries again: "Poop." "Nope, loop," the mouse counters on the following page. Correct again--they are now watching a paper airplane's circuitous flight path. On it goes, until it's time for a scoop of ice cream. This time when the raccoon, who has just spilled the contents of its cone and is wearing a big chocolate smear on its overalls, says "Poop," the mouse can't deny it: "Yep."

Ah, but there's more to Poop than wordplay. Mark Hoffmann tips off the reader about each upcoming new rhyme for "poop" by planting a visual on the page: an airborne basketball precedes "Nope, hoop"; gray lines wafting in the air set up "Nope, soup"; and so on. Getting in on the action on every page are members of an all-animal cast that isn't conforming to any expectations: the raccoon is bear-size, the mouse has big blue ears and a sheep wears a green mohawk. A note of caution: Watch out for the pug on the first page. It pretty much disappears until the book's final image, in which it leaves the reader a, um, present. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author

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