Put Your Botty on the Potty!

“Makes graduating to big kid pants fun.”

Sam Lloyd makes graduating to big kid pants fun in Put Your Botty on the Potty! The text is spare and simple, the art bright and appealing. Who doesn’t like googly-eyed monsters, especially when combined with poop?

Moo Monster is tired of pooping in diapers and wants to be “more grown-up than that!” So Mommy monster orders an exciting present for Moo, who opens the package to find a new potty. The lift-the-flap feature allows young readers to be part of the story, and it works especially well on this page, where they can “open” the  beribboned box themselves. Another great use of the flaps is the next page: “Moo practices sitting on the potty. It’s perfect for a monster botty. Moo sits . . . and sits . . . and sits . . . until finally . . .”

While Moo sits, the monster does what many do while on the toilet: Moo reads a book. This one is Potty Pioneers, also by Sam Lloyd, and turning the pages of this clever book-within-a-book, you find “A Farty Fox. A Quiet Queen. A Tinkly T-Rex. A Poopy Pirate.” Then on the next page, the big reveal under the flap is, of course, what Moo has put into the potty—“Ta dah!”

Having gotten the knack of the potty, Moo is rewarded with real underwear, exciting to every monster. After picking a green pair, which the reader has to find by lifting more flaps, there’s a big monster party to celebrate. The ending is appropriately reassuring. Even if there’s “a little accident—a monster pee-pee,” it’s not a disaster, just a step on the way to big-kid pants. “’Don’t worry,’ says Moo. ‘We’re learning together. We’re all trying hard, and we’re all very clever!’” The young reader will feel both part of the celebration and a member of the group “trying hard.” Parents who are looking for a book to encourage their tots to use the potty need look no further.