Kids Blog

Well as amazing as it seems someone has actually written a book about poop.  Yes that subject that most of us avoid is all out in the open now because Poop Happened.

This book has the history of the world from the bottom up with everything from the chamber pot to the astronaut’s toilet. It will have you rolling on your own toilet with laughter as well as pulling faces in real disgust.

For instance did you know that the Ancient Romans did not use toilet paper? In their public bathrooms they had a sponge on a stick that was placed in a bucket of salt water. After they….. you know… they would wipe themselves with the sponge and then put it back in the bucket for the next person. THAT IS DISGUSTING.

Or did you know that the first patents for flushing toilets were filed about two hundred years ago. But as recently as a hundred and fifty years ago, most homes still had no toilet. The new toilets were so pricey, only wealthy people could afford to have one.  Although at first they were considered status symbols, the early toilets didn’t work very well. They smelled, they leaked, and the noise they made when they flushed was deafening. And because they were not hooked up to sever lines (which didn’t exist), they often flooded people’s basements or yards. Yuk!

Fact for the day: Did you know that there are special scientist’s that spend a lot of time studying ancient poop. They are called Paleoscatologists. Believe it or not, they can learn a lot from fossilized human excrement. Rather them that me I say.

But anyway if you are interested in Poop then this book is for you but you may want to wash your hands after reading it!

Do you want to be a master of slimy, mushy, oozy or stinky facts about the body? Well you might want to read this book which is truly a science of really gross things!

Surprise your friends, relatives, families or even the odd stranger with your knowledge of the grosser side of life. An example: in your mouth alone there are more critters than there are people in Australia and Canada combined! So that makes your mouth the most unsanitary part of your whole body! Yikes!

If you’d like to master the art of grossology then check out Grossology by Sylvia Branzei at the children’s non fiction area with the call number J612BRA. Explore the grosser side of life! Enjoy!

Prepare to be disgusted, revolted and laugh out loud at these hideous facts from our putrid past with 1001 Hideous History Facts.  Did you know that Australian Aborigines have used kangaroo-skin bandages for thousands of years, and on the 25th October 1760, King George II became the second English king to die on the toilet? What about in the 18th century they made a vaccination against smallpox by using pus taken from sores on dairymaid’s hands and rubbing it onto a scratch on the patient’s arm. Yuk, glad they don’t do that anymore!

Well apparently an elephant produces a mind blowing pongy 20 kilos of dung a day! How Much Poo Does an Elephant Do? is another book by Mitchell Symons that has lots of quirky, weird and wonderful trivia for you. I found this one fascinating: in India the term “man-eating” is only applied to tigers that have killed three or more people. Man-eating tigers are usually too old to capture wild animals. Isn’t that wild or what! So check out this book. If you like it then also try other books by the same author How to Avoid a Wombat’s Bum and Why Eating Bogeys is Good for You.

I found a really, really cool looking book while I was putting books away today. It’s called Why eating bogeys is good for you. In my last post, I talked about jokes being funny when they have a punch line that takes your brain by surprise. Another way that jokes can be funny is when they are a little bit “naughty” or impolite. Polite boys and girls don’t talk about eating bogeys, do they? Especially around their grannies! But disgusting facts and stories can be so much fun. For example, one of my favourite stories is by Paul Jennings called ‘Little Squirt’ in Unmentionable: Disgusting!! But hilarious!

WARNING: be very careful with impolite jokes. Choose the right time and place to tell them otherwise you may get into trouble – and that is definitely not funny!

Here’s a book that is loaded with interesting facts about the strange, foul and the most repellent things on Earth! Did that get your attention? Here is an example, the sea apple when threatened, vomits its entire digestive system at its attacker! Yikes! It even includes a favorite delicacy from my country, the Philippines. Its a fruit called the durian, also nicknamed “King of Fruits”. It is really the most delicious fruit you could ever taste the only catch is that it smells terrible! But it’s soooo terribly delicious. I used to eat it with my hands pinching my nose. If you want to know more about this stuff check out “The Search for Vile Things” Volume 1 by Jane Hammersbough. I guarantee you’ll like it!

Yes the 2009 Ripley’s Believe It or Not edition is here. It even has a special glow on the dark cover! It has awesome and mind boggling facts as always. I am always amazed at the unbelievable things that people and animals and nature can come up with. Read on about body oddities, animal antics and the strange but true. See what a man from Ukraine who has size 17 inches shoes and is 8ft and 4 inches tall looks like. What is a twisted tongue? Go on and check this book out I assure you you’ll really enjoy it!

Are you interested in how stuff like mobile phones really work? If you are then you’ll love Cool Stuff Exploded. Learn all about gadgetry including things you might see in the future!

The Search for Vile Things (Volume 1) is all about bizarre and gross plants, food, insects and customs from around the world. There are enough disgusting and interesting facts in here to last you at least four weeks.

Also new: books about ballet, rare animals, octopi (octopuses – cool!), and phenomena and unexplainable things. For the latest in children’s non-fiction keep checking My Library – you can see what fiction, picture books, CDs and DVDs we’ve got too!

I’ve just flipped open a book called ‘The Big Book of Boy Stuff’ to the farting page. We here at Wellington City Libraries know you lot love to read about disgusting facts… So here’s the goss on farting:

Boys and Girls fart the same amount, but girls hold them in more (to be polite) so theirs are probably bigger!

Most people fart about 14 times a day! This is enough to fill a litre milk bottle! If you fart more than this then you must have super powers.

If your dog or cat has gas then you aren’t feeding it the right food. Its intestines can’t digest it properly which creates gas.

Native Alaskans enjoy a delicious dish called ‘Stinky Tail’. It’s fermented beaver tail, which is made by burying the beaver tail in a pit for weeks or even months! Ewww!

Elephants drop huge farts, but they’re usually not too smelly. Turtle farts smell the worst and Donkey farts are the loudest! But the worst farter has to be the termite; they fart constantly all day long!

Phooey!

You are invited to join the Churlyshes on their quest to the East Indies to search for all things vile…. The Search for Vile Things by Jane Hammerslough describes the highly bizarre, and often disgusting, but very real plants, animals, food, insects, customs and artifacts that Ephemera Churlyshe (explorer extraordinaire) found and documented on her most unusual adventure to the South Pacific. Did you know that sea apples vomit on their attachers when threatened? A cone snail’s venom is so toxic, it can kill a human in minutes and there are frogs and snakes that can fly?