Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Stinky Sanitation Inventions - book review


"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into boullion cubes."
                                               ~J. W. Eagan







Hold your nose, close your eyes and step away!  Today is going to be a stinky review but you will be amazed to learn how we invented "stuff" to keep ourselves sanitary, healthy and clean.  It wasn't always so...... time for a re-fresher's course.....


Title:  Stinky Sanitation Inventions
Author:  Katie Marsico
Ages:  8-12




I guarantee that kids will love the subject of this book.  Kids love gross, kids love lists and trivia and kids love to say ..... yewwwwwww!!!!  There are many opportunities in this book to be grossed out but also many opportunities too learn interesting facts regarding sanitation in our modern day world.  The curious mind of a child will be fulfilled for sure.

Your child will learn about pooper-scoopers, port-a-potties, sewers and landfills.  Can you imagine being hired to be the poor person who was handed a rake and asked to do the work of our now modern garbage trucks?  Did you know that toilet paper was first used by Chinese emperors and in this modern day and age the average person uses almost twenty-one thousand sheets of toilet paper a year?  Who knew such interesting facts?  Not me.  The book is sprinkled with colourful photos with added information highlighted on each page.  The design is savvy and modern, sure to appeal to kids.

 I had never heard of a "garderobe".   Have you?  It is a medieval toilet attached to the outside of the palace where royalty went to do their business.  Their human waste was expelled and dropped down into the moat.....now that method stinks for sure!   Thank goodness we have come a long way from that toilet experience.   I recommend this book highly, not only for its information, but also for its entertainment component.  I love odd stories that give me a history of the inventions that we take for granted and use every day and I am sure your kids will too.  An added bonus is the glossary and index section that gives you even more insight into these fabulous inventions that make our life so much easier and sanitary.  So glad smart inventors allowed us to clean up our act!  Fresh is best!


About the author:

Katie Marsico is a published author of children's books. Some of the published credits of Katie Marsico include Como crece un manati / A Manatee Calf Grows Up (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers En Espanol), Como crece una mariquita / A Ladybug Larva Grows Up (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers En Espanol), Soccer (Real World Math).






Book Review Rating;    8  (Fantastic!)




Just for fun.....

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout 
Would not take the garbage out! 
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans, 
Candy the yams and spice the hams, 
And though her daddy would scream and shout, 
She simply would not take the garbage out. 
And so it piled up to the ceilings: 
Coffee grounds, potato peelings, 
Brown bananas, rotten peas, 
Chunks of sour cottage cheese. 
It filled the can, it covered the floor, 
It cracked the window and blocked the door 
With bacon rinds and chicken bones, 
Drippy ends of ice cream cones, 
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel, 
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal, 
Pizza crusts and withered greens, 
Soggy beans and tangerines, 
Crusts of black burned buttered toast, 
Gristly bits of beefy roasts. . . 
The garbage rolled on down the hall, 
It raised the roof, it broke the wall. . . 
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs, 
Globs of gooey bubble gum, 
Cellophane from green baloney, 
Rubbery blubbery macaroni, 
Peanut butter, caked and dry, 
Curdled milk and crusts of pie, 
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard, 
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard, 
Cold french fried and rancid meat, 
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat. 
At last the garbage reached so high 
That it finally touched the sky. 
And all the neighbors moved away, 
And none of her friends would come to play. 
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said, 
"OK, I'll take the garbage out!" 
But then, of course, it was too late. . . 
The garbage reached across the state, 
From New York to the Golden Gate. 
And there, in the garbage she did hate, 
Poor Sarah met an awful fate, 
That I cannot now relate 
Because the hour is much too late. 
But children, remember Sarah Stout 
And always take the garbage out!
Shel Silverstein, 1974
  



Read on and read always!   Have an awesome day and comments welcome!

*book compliments of NetGalley with thanks.  ideas and thoughts my own



No comments: