Justine McKeen, Pooper Scooper

Gr 2–4—Young environmental activist Justine McKeen tackles the dog-poop problem in her town's park. The secondary plotline is that the school librarian's hours have been cut since each student has a school-issued ebook reader. Justine's grand plan is to clean up the after the dogs in an effort to convince the superintendent to reinstate the librarian's hours. He listens to the students' concerns and agrees to ask the school board to change their decision at the next meeting. More information and resources regarding the issues addressed in the book follow the story. While Brouwer tackles some significant concerns affecting our environment, there is simply no way to do them justice in such a short tale. In addition, the number of new ideas and characters makes the plot tricky to follow for newly independent readers. Purchase if other Justine McKeen books are popular.—Amy Commers, South St. Paul Public Library, MN