Primary rhyming text follows a girl named Finn and her dog Skeeter as they explore the woods; additional secondary text provides a wealth of information about the different animals whose signs (scat, tracks) they encounter: cottontail rabbits, Canada geese, raccoons, red foxes, striped skunks, and black-capped chickadees. ( )

Finn and her hound dog Skeeter head into the woods in this rhyming exploration of animal tracks and scat (i.e.: feces). As she bounds along, Finn is continually putting her new boots into a different kind of scat, but nothing daunted, she continues on her way. Each scat-stepping episode is accompanied by a factual aside about the animal that left the droppings, from rabbits to geese, raccoons to foxes...

Track That Scat! was author Lisa Morlock's debut picture-book, and appears thus far to be her only published title. It features a fun read-aloud text about a very un-squeamish little girl and her dog, as well as some interesting information about a variety of common North American animals. The accompanying artwork from Carrie Anne Bradshaw is cute, although just a smidgeon too cartoon-like for my taste, when it comes to a work of natural history. Although this one was fun enough, and could work as a first introduction to these animals and their tracks and scat, for very young children, I think there are better animal track books out there, such as Jim Arnosky's Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracks and Wildlife Signs or Mia Posada's Who Was Here?: Discovering Wild Animal Tracks (in whose bibliography I found this title from Morlock). On the other hand, this one includes scat, which will undoubtedly appeal to children's enjoyment of potty humor. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for animal scat/track titles for younger children. ( )

The storyline, rhyming text, and illustrations are cute, but not first rate. The information about each animal including track and scat identification is more interesting. The animals featured are common through most of North America so that children will be familiar with them and likely to find either tracks or scat if they seek them out. ( )

A humorous introduction to identifying the poop of some common wild animals found just about everywhere. ( )

Track that Scat

by: Lisa Morlock

Illustrated by: Carrie Anne Bradshaw

4 Star Review


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781585365364
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date: 2/1/2012
Pages: 32
Sales rank: 285,255
Age range: 6 – 10 Years
Product dimensions: 10.10 (w) x 10.10 (h) x 0.30 (d)

Overall, the rhyme is very cute to use with little ones, but the overall content won’t be understood by children until they are at least 4-5. The detailed information given about each animal is fairly complex. Each animal has an example of what the tracks look like, what their scat looks like, and some other information about them. For instance, Raccoon scat carries a parasite in it that infects humans and rabbits eat their scat when it first comes out but not the second time it comes out. There is a difference in texture between the first and second time it comes out. So, this book is very informative and overall, the rhymes are a lot of fun if you skip over the information aspect. It’s a little sing-song and can keep a smaller child’s attention. The shining moment for this book is the illustrations. They are beautiful! They are not extremely complex, but they are very cartoonish and fun. I enjoy flipping through the book without looking at anything. I almost want to pull out the picture of the hound dog from the beginning and use it as a picture to hang on my niece’s wall. They are just so adorable!

I didn’t give it 5 stars because the content was just too complex for a young audience. The information would definitely require extra explanation and time with a young one for them to understand. If the reader (assuming parent) wants to spend time investigating the information with their child, or waiting until the child is older, then this would be perfect for them. ( )