Information in informational books is often hard to ingest and digest. Not so with The Pet Poo Pocket Guide by Rose Seemann. Although it contains everything the novice recycler of dog and cat waste absolutely needs to know, the book’s tone is conversational and engaging. After every few paragraphs, I found myself wanting to ask questions of the author as if she were sitting across the table from me.The power of Seemann’s prose helps the reader move smoothly and swiftly from concept to concept. She delights in well-turned sentences to cap a point. When discussing, for example, her use of “bokashi sludge” to ferment a bucket of compost, she writes: “Cynical as a crow, but secretly hopeful, I let the bokashi work over the weekend.” Rose’s diction is supple, energetic, and often astonishing. When I reached her section on “Mouldering,” I thought, wow, I haven’t seen or heard any form of the verb “moulder” since reading “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard [graveyard]” in high school. Early on in this tight, bright book, Ms Seemann promises that once the reader begins to appreciate all that’s involved in the recycling of pet waste, an “awe factor” should override the “ick factor.” It does indeed. I’m waiting for the sequel. Denny Stasukevich, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
