A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!” his lamb baas back.

Not quite the crowd pleaser that it could be.Ī succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.Ī grumpy bull says, “DADA!” his calf moos back. At least the closing twist, in which the rabbit returns to form with “Fart!” in response to a parental order to brush his teeth, requires no translation. Originally published in 2011 in New Zealand (and much reprinted since), the episode first appeared on this continent in 2015 (from another publisher) as Poop-di-doop!-a version of the delightfully daring epithet that American audiences may find more immediately appealing than the original. In what amounts to a remake of Maurice Sendak’s Pierre with cruder language and an all-animal cast, an anthropomorphic rabbit responds to every request with the titular phrase-including a wolf’s “May I eat you?” Down the hatch goes the lippy lapin, and now the wolf’s only words are “Poo bum.” This signals the wolf’s villainy to the rabbit doctor summoned to help, and he proceeds to reach down his patient’s gullet and pull out his “little poo bum!” “Good heavens, Father! How dare you call me that? You know perfectly well my name is Simon.” The pithy narrative’s heavy typeface accords well with both the level of humor and the illustrations’ thick, simply drawn lines and broad swathes of opaque primary hues. I believe that entertainment is an overrated function of art and we should be challenged by what we view and read.An encounter with a wolf has remarkable effects on the vocabulary of a snarky little bunny. Stephanie Blake is a big seller in France. 'Scatological writing doesn't usually impress me - but the plot of Poo Bum is hilarious. What couldn't you like about a potty-mouthed rabbit?' - Sunday Star-Times Seven-year-old considered it hilarious and 2-year-old laughed because everyone else did. 'Likely to stop even non-bookish kids in their tracks.' 'The Best Picture Books for Children' - The Guardian (UK) The book is so fun and I highly recommend it. They will want to go back again and again to enjoy this irreverent book of toilet humour. The repetitive words 'Poo Bum!' will have kids engaged and participating with the text. The illustrations are colourful, bold and simple. I can totally see this being a favourite of little kids, thanks to its hilarious absurdity. The story consists of a rabbit repeating a scatological phrase. Poo Bum is simplistic, with no lessons learned. I've read so many children's books that, when one of them stands out, I notice.

Poo Bum by Stéphanie Blake