Was your road to publication long and winding, short and sweet, or something in between? I wasn’t sure how an illustrator would tackle such a dark subject in a book for children, but Nancy’s take on it is pure genius! Her illustrations are the perfect combination of historical fact and humor, and I especially love how she illustrates the cholera epidemics. It’s illustrated by the enormously talented Nancy Carpenter. The back matter delves into “Poop Pollution Today” and offers tips for kids who want to stop human waste and other pollutants from getting into their local waterways. (Spoiler alert: it involves cholera.) Then, it follows the efforts of engineer extraordinaire Joseph Bazalgette as he cleans the river and saves lives by building London’s first modern sewer system. The book takes readers through time to show how London’s River Thames developed its terrible stench and what impact its polluted waters had on the people who lived there. Then, when I discovered it combined engineering, pollution, history, and poop (!!), I knew it was an event both kids and adults would find fascinating. When I first read about it, in Ruth Goodman’s book How to Be a Victorian, the name alone made it sound like the perfect topic for a picture book. Thank you! The Great Stink was an olfactory event that happened in 1858 in London.
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