Did You Do This Poo?
Lucy Rowland and Gareth Conway
Scholastic

A little unicorn turns detective when walking in the forest one morning, on account of a strange aroma that on further investigation turns out to be a rather large, slimy poo. He asks readers to join him in a search for the poo perpetrator.

First to be questioned is Rabbit who happens to hop by, but responding to the interrogation thus, “My poos aren’t so slimy. They don’t have that smell. In fact, they’re so nice that I eat them as well!”, it’s obvious that Rabbit is innocent. So too is Wise Owl – a splat clears that creature. Then Badger appears and on being asked like the others, ‘did YOU do this poo?’ does turn a tad pink but is quick to point out that he uses a special latrine in which to drop his excretory matter. Bear, Bat and Deer’s poos don’t match the pongy turd either.

It appears that somebody is not being truthful, but who could it be?

Suddenly Badger advances and explains that earlier that morning, he’d gone to his latrine, found it engaged and unable to hold on, did a dump elsewhere – the very one that they’ve spent so long trying to identify.

Now with the culprit having owned up, the animals – now poo experts – turn their attention to examining what was left in Badger’s pit. Will they solve that case? Have you?

Let’s just say this poo leaver has no option but to own it with pride.

With her combination of unicorn protagonist and poo, rhyming expert extraordinaire, Lucy Rowland, is surely on to a winner with young children, even more so with Gareth Conway’s hilarious scenes of the animals’ search for the pooing culprit. A smashing whodunit for story time sharing; you might want to have some air freshener at the ready.