More Dung! A Beetle Tale by Frank Weber (review)

Reviewed by: More Dung! A Beetle Tale by Frank Weber Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Weber, Frank More Dung! A Beetle Tale; written and illus. by Frank Weber. Disney Hyperion, 2024 48p Trade ed. ISBN 9781368100083 18. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-8 yrs Our dung beetle starts his day at the river, waiting gratefully for what gift the sky will bestow upon him, and with a "SPLAT!" is rewarded with a heap of elephant poop. He happily rolls the ball of dung through the forest, snacking away while contemplating the beauty of his surroundings, until he meets a leopard who tells End Page 300 him of a farm at the end of the valley "with more dung than any beetle could dream of. " Intrigued, the beetle heads to the farm, where indeed, there are heaps of dung from all the cows there. As his pile of dung gets bigger, he gets other beetles to continue the dirty work as he demands more and more. Unfortunately, the mountain of poop grows unsteady, soon avalanching and trapping the beetle; he's unearthed by his workers (who aren't there to help but rather running off with pieces of the poop pile for themselves) and heads back to the forest to be content again with what the sky will give him. What begins as a cheeky bit of scatological humor turns into a wonderfully defiant anti-capitalist screed. With a jaunty kick in his step, our bug-eyed buddy moves through a world rife with natural textures, from the mottled depth of the forest's flora to the more saturated flatness of the soil and poop; the stark white and grays of the farm emphatically contrast with the more lush colors of the wilderness, centering only the beetle's growing poop pile. The combination of absurd humor and clever social commentary gives the book broad appeal, making it an easy choice for a giggly storytime or a discussion on what and how we decide to commodify things. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois