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Is Paper made of Poop called Pooper?
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All kids are fascinated by poop before we teach them to be disgusted by it ! But excreta plays a very important role in Nature - animals use it for a variety of reasons and it even works as nutrition for some !
Here is is a delightful childrens book that demystifies poop - rather it awards it its due respect!!
Funny and colourful, THE POOP BOOK, has been co authored by Sujatha Padmanabhan and Tejaswini Apte-Rahm. Members of the Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, the authors have both been closely involved in environmental work over the years.
The illustrations by Priya Kuriyan are delightful and a visual treat.
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For a butterfly, poop is liquid while for an elephant it is a fibrous mass of biomass! For an aphid, whose poop is sweet and sticky, it is a temptation for ants who protect their source of nutrition from other insects. Dung beetles lay their eggs in their poop and when their babies are born they are surrounded by a rich source of foods.
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Somehow human beings have to find a use for anything before they will respect it. Interestingly poop has a lot more uses that you can imagine. At least in the animal world... Poop can be a disinfectant, a marker of territory and a coolant. Food, when processed by gut bacteria, can help in the germination processes of seeds and poop can be the medium through which seeds travel. Termites use their poop as building material, and they mix it with soil, saliva and wood to build their nests.
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Some animals want to keep their poop close to them- some want it to spread far and wide! Using their tails to fling it around , animals mark their territories and trick their predators about their actual locations. Bees poop when they fly and so you can have yellow rain!!
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The sight and smells of poop are also as important in helping an animal survive. Some caterpillars disguise themselves as bird poop, to avoid being eaten by birds. A frog that looks like poop - makes a hopping poop!And when under threat, the opossum will cover itself with its poop which is a stinky green liquid and pretend to be dead!
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The book is filled with humour and would be a delight for parents to read along with their children as they make them feel at ease about pee and poop. The natural elimination of living beings closes the food chain and this book is a hilarious way to show children that poop can be celebrated even! Kudos to the authors for choosing a topic that may be considered 'unpoopular' but is in fact a very crucial part of a childs every day life.
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Sujatha Padmanabhan is a trained special educator and has worked with children with multiple disabilities. Her main engagement at Kalpavriksh has been in the field of environment education for children. She has been involved in developing localised environment education programmes. She has authored several books for children.
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Tejwaswini Apte-Rahm is the author of the short story collection, These Circuses That Sweep through the Landscape, shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book proves and the Tata Nexon Literature Live! First Book award. She has worked as a journalist and as an environmental researcher and has written for Screen, Hindustan Times, the Times of India and Asian Age. www.tejaswiniapterahm.com
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Priya Kuriyan is a childrens book author and illustrator. She also creates comics and dabbles in animation. She has directed educational films for the Sesame Street show in India and the Childrens Film Society of India and illustrated numerous childrens books.
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