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REVIEW: The Great Stink

8/6/2022

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THE GREAT STINK: Nothing Stinky About It!

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© Nancy Carpenter, nancycarpenter.website

A Review


The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London's Poop Pollution Problem, written by Colleen Paeff and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, is kidlit nonfiction at it's best. For one thing, it's an excellent telling of a most-interesting slice of history. What exactly was causing London's river Thames to stink to high heavens in 1858? Could it have been all that POOP floating within it? Could that poopy water, part of London's drinking supply, have been the culprit behind the deadly outbreaks of cholera? Hmmm, you think?

The Great Stink shines the spotlight on an unsung hero--Joseph Bazalgette. Though a civil engineer during a time when people were more apt to believe superstition than science, Joseph was a true detective, digging for the facts. (Sometimes literally!) He was persistent--never gave up in trying to convince the powers that be that clean drinking water was vital to the health and well-being of the city's inhabitants.

(Did you know that some people back then thought it was OK to drink murky, dirty water, so long as they let the gunk settle to the bottom of their glasses before drinking it? That's the kind of stinky stuff you'll discover when reading this book.)

Thankfully, Joseph wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty (in a clean-it-up sort of way). His love for his city and its inhabitants kept him on task for years. He wanted more than anything to clean up London's smelly problem. After Queen Victoria got ill, Joseph was finally given permission, funds, and manpower to solve London's poopy situation. When all was said and done, he created an entirely new thing--a sewage waste disposal system!

​People could finally unplug their noses!

"The evidence is too strong to ignore. Doctors and scientists gradually begin to accept that contaminated water--not air--causes cholera. By clearing the Thames of pollution, Joseph's sewers are saving lives."


​Kids are sure love this book. They will applaud Joseph's detective skills, tenacity, and his innovative waterworks project that kept the Thames flowing free from raw sewage. In fact, from the back matter, readers will learn that Joseph's method of separating wastewater from people's fresh water supply is still saving lives today.

Joseph created an AHA! moment in history! 

Though a little longer than some picture books, The Great Stink is fast paced. Carpenter's illustrations are sobering while at the same time super fun. They add a level of suspense to each spread. When discussing water conservation, teachers will not regret having a copy of this book in their classroom library. Students of any age will find this story as relevant in our COVID world as it was in the 1850 and 60s. Joseph Bazalgette's victory proved that disease and death can be prevented when common sense and science--the facts--prevail.

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The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London's Poop Pollution Problem is written by Colleen Paeff, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, and published by Margaret K. McElderry Books (August 2021). The Great Stink was named a 2022 ALA Robert F. Sibert Award Honor Book, 2022 Cook Prize Finalist, 2022 SCBWI Golden Kite Finalist, a 2021 Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best, and a 2022 CBC-NSTA Best STEM Book. Order your copy from a local indie book store, or from Bookshop.org, HERE.

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Craft Tips Learned from Watching Chopped

8/5/2022

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(c) Cynthia Cliff, cynthiacliff.com

​I love watching Chopped, a reality Food Network show that invites four chefs to prepare an appetizer, entrée, and dessert, each within a limited amount of time and by using a basket with mystery ingredients. A panel of judges rates each dish based on creativity, taste, and presentation. At the end of each round, the chef with the weakest palatal delight is placed on the proverbial chopping block, leaving a Chopped champion by dessert’s end. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking—Dionna, why are you wasting your writing time watching the veg-tube? My reply? This is writing research, not time wasted! I’ve gleaned a lot about the writing process by watching Chopped. Really.

For example:

Don’t forget the salt

We all know how important it is to add the right amount of salt to a dish, right? But I’ve seen many an episode when a classically trained chef forgets the essential dash, leaving the food, while beautiful, full of blah. Writing lesson learned? Don’t forget to add sensory delight to every scene by engaging all five senses, including taste!
 
Transform the ingredients

Chefs on Chopped are often given the strangest of mystery ingredients. Sometimes, I’m like, really? Artificial spray cheese? But a skilled chef can do it! He can turn that gloopy yellow goo into yum. How? Creativity combined with freshness. (FYI: artificial spray cheese makes delicious creamed kale.) My takeaway? Writers can spin original plot lines into something new by being creative.
 
 Add some fat 

I’ve seen quite a few chefs rise to the challenge when the basket is inherently lean, like say there are Rocky Mountain oysters in there. (Can you believe people actually eat bull testicles? Ewww!) A chef will slice them thin and deep fry them in sizzling oil. Readers like the taste of “fat,” too. They want stories full of emotion. Fat is where it’s at in a good way, at least when it comes to writing.

Sauce it together

I’ve seen chefs on the show rise to the top by using the unique flavor profile of an ingredient, like preserved rice juice, to create a delicious sauce that ties their dessert together. Writing lesson? We can tie our scenes together with a “sauce,” a theme, a setting, a mood.

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Use the pantry wisely

Besides the basket ingredients, chefs on the show are encouraged to use fresh ingredients from the Chopped pantry in their dish. But if they add too many—say, a whole lot of chocolate to mask the taste of durian—the judges will ding them. They actually want to be able to taste the ingredients found in the basket, even if it’s a foul-smelling Asian fruit. Lesson: as writers, we should remind ourselves not to overwhelm a scene or dialogue with unnecessary details or description. Less is more basket.

Be true to yourself

Chopped champions are often those who stay true to their own style of cooking, like the one who borrowed his babcia’s chrusciki recipe, or the one who created her naani’s curry blend. The recipe for success as writers? Take a lesson from Granny. Mine from your culture, your homeplace, your language, your ancestry to create stories uniquely your own.

Tantalize the taste buds

I love it when chefs on Chopped create something so yummy, so scrumptious, that it leaves the judges saying, “I can’t stop eating this.” As writers, shouldn’t we try to do the same—leave our readers not just satisfied by the story’s end, but wishing for a sequel?

Remember all the ingredients

To avoid leaving a mystery ingredient off the plate, I’ve seen many a chef on Chopped count their ingredients before Ted, the host, says, “Please, step back.” (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been left holding my breath, hoping that chef won’t forget those caramelized hot dogs hiding beneath their station!) As writers, we should enumerate, too. Have we included all that makes a story a story? Do we have a main character wanting something and doing something to get it; does he have an obstacle in his way and something at stake if he doesn’t obtain it? 

Count. 

Taste your food

Tasting as you go along is a secret to success in any kitchen. Writers should also “taste” their words as they go along by reading them out loud.

There are many more writing lessons from Chopped begging to be shared.

Writers cookbook, anyone? ​

Images, used with permission of the illustrator, Cynthia Cliff.

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    About Me

    Dionna is a spinner of children's yarns, a weaver of nonfiction, and a forever-learner enrolled in the Institute of Imaginative Thinking. Her kidlit work has appeared on the pages of  Cricket, Spider, and Ladybug. As a work-for-hire author, she's written projects for Scholastic, Lerner, Capstone, Little, Brown and other educational publishers. Her middle-grade, MAMA'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS, will be released by Holiday House come 2024. An SCBWI member since 2005, Dionna is represented by ​Kelly Dyksterhouse and 
    Jacqui Lipton of The Tobias Literary Agency.


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