- Non-Fiction
- Ages 7–11
- Science
A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You
Book 1 of 4 in A Day in the LifeView the full series
A brilliantly funny comic-style fact book that makes bodies, animals, poo, planets and everyday science feel ridiculous and memorable. One of the strongest non-fiction picks for reluctant readers who want jokes before they realise they are learning.
- Best for7–11
- FormatNon-fiction
- Length128 pp
- Read aloud~1 hr50 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
- Onomatopoeic
Tone
- Funny
- Silly
- Irreverent
- Exciting
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
This first A Day in the Life book turns science and nature into a parade of comic monologues, diary entries and illustrated mini-features. Instead of presenting facts in a dry encyclopaedia style, Mike Barfield and Jess Bradley give voices to body parts, animals, natural phenomena and strange scientific processes, making each page feel like a funny little comic strip or sketch. Children can dip in anywhere, learning about the human body, the animal kingdom, Earth science and other oddities through quick entries that are packed with visual humour. It is especially useful for children who resist conventional non-fiction, because the information arrives through gags, cartoon faces, speech bubbles and gross-out curiosity. The book has genuine educational value, but its real strength is that it treats knowledge as something lively, silly and shareable.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 7–11
- Read aloud · 6–10
- Independent · 7–11
Prose load
Moderate
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Funny facts
- Gross science
- Comic non fiction
- Reluctant readers
- Dip in reading
Avoid if
- Dislikes poo humour
- Prefers story driven books
- Wants calm bedtime reading
Particularly good for children who are…
- Interested in science
- Reluctant reader
- Struggling with reading
In the classroom
How it works in school.
Funny, fact-packed biology kids devour — a companion for animal and human-body topics and strong for retrieval.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
Sneaky learning under the toilet humour. The kind of book that makes a seven-year-old who 'doesn't like facts' learn quite a lot of them — body parts narrating their own bad days, animals describing their morning routines, jokes per page so dense the science arrives by accident.
- Trickery and cleverness
Why parents love it
Sneaky learning under the toilet humour — the kind of book that makes a seven-year-old who 'doesn't like facts' learn quite a lot of them. Mike Barfield's comic-style diary entries from poos, gnus and human body parts make non-fiction feel like comedy. Reliable for the reluctant-reader 7-to-10 shelf.
- Shared humour
- Educational for adult too
- Quick to read
- Conversation starter
In the series
A Day in the Life.
4 books · open the series →
About the creators
About the creators.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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