A Day In The Life of A Poo, A Gnu and You is a go-to STEM reference

Everything old is new again. That phrase comes to mind when realizing some of the great books that came out during the pandemic that didn’t receive the attention that they deserve. A Day In The Life Of A Poo, A Gnu, and You, a Laugh-Out-Loud Guide to Life on Earth is one of those books. It’s as big as an illustrated book, yet has the depth and weight of a reference book, but has more colors and graphics than some comic books or graphic novels. As if the book is attempting to pile on its brownie points, it’s educational, funny, ridiculously entertaining, and wait for it….one that kids will really want to read.

For the casual reader, it will be the illustrations. For the reluctant reader, it will be the movement, humor, and art. For those reader kids, STEM-minded folks, or the generally curious kind, it will be the information. Any age reader who picks up the book will learn something. For example, I just turned to a random page and read about white blood cells.

This lesson, for lack of a better term, is played out like an old-school photo album. The edges of the white blood cell pictures are taped up, there are dates, times, and a brief description of what’s happening during the illustrated time period. Because it looks like a cell’s baby book it’s disarming. The text is playfully written too. The combinations of those two things are a great example as to why the content in A Day In The Life is a perfect example of soft learning. This is learning where readers are enjoying the material on the pages so much that they keep reading. The fact that the content in the book is all non-fiction STEM is simply a happy by-product.

The longest featured content is done with two pages. Most of the pages in the book cover one topic, like the sea jelly, clouds, venus flytrap, flamingo, farts, pimples, warts, and more. Even just mentioning those topics to any person who is seven or older will make them realize that they’ve had a question about it, wanted to read more about it, or are now curious about it.

A Day In The Life Of A Poo, A Gnu, And You covers topics that other catch-all, curiosity books for elementary ages that we’ve seen. In this case, the elephant in the room is Nat Geo Kids. However, those books, as well as, others accomplish things with illustrations or photographs. This book is much more effective because the art is timeless, cartoonish, and happy for elementary and middle school ages. The actual information is effortless to read and compliments the vibe of the illustrations perfectly. It also adheres to the potato chip and kitten video philosophy in that it’s impossible to consume just one.

A Day In The Life Of A Poo, A Gnu And You, A Laugh-Out-Loud Guide To Life On Earth is by Mike Barfield and Jess Bradley and is available on Aladdin Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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