My god, if there was ever a title that was perfect for a kids book, this is it. But it also misled me a little bit: I assumed the book was going to be nothing but humor, a fart joke collection. The humor’s here, and the book was genuinely funny at times, but it is also educational. Bethany Barton blends childish humor (like illustrations of different fart types, such as the “silent-but-deadly” and the “toot salute”) with clear, straightforward explanations of flatulence.
She does this by using a pair of characters: the relatively serious sister, who does the explaining, and the brother, who farts, tells fart jokes, and offers snarky commentary, sometimes all at once. The explanations cover anatomy and physiology (fart production in the body), chemistry (the various gasses in farts), and bits of comparative zoology (tidbits about termite and dog farts–and bird and sloth non-farts).
The illustrations are fairly simple, but they do all they need to. I suggest this book for anyone who has kids (especially boys), anyone who is interested in simple explanations of science, and anyone who farts.
