EVERYONE TOOTS

It’s not just you; everyone’s bottom makes more than poo.

“Daddy toots while working / up on the ladder, / Mommy toots while exercising / and says, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ ” Grandpa toots too; though Grandma doesn’t hear it, she covers her nose with her jacket. Musicians, royalty, baseball players, astronauts, and even ballerinas (though they deny it) all break wind. Elephants and hippos make bubbles under water, and unicorns fart sweet-smelling rainbows. “So if you’re on the school bus / or outside having fun, / don’t worry about a toot or two / —because it happens to everyone!” Rhatigan’s rhyming assurance that everyone blows the bottom bugle joins the veritable explosion (pun very much intended) of funny fart tales. The bright, digitally created illustrations will elicit more giggles than the fluffed verse in this fable. O’Kif’s goggle-eyed animals, some embarrassed, some surprised, some cheeky (that one intended too), all issue little green clouds to prove the title’s point. The picture of three anthropomorphic students on the bus—a crocodile, a Boston terrier, and a hedgehog—all elevated by the power of their toots—helps to make up for the stumbling scansion.

It’s not as rollicking or ingenious as Marty Kelley’s Almost Everybody Farts (2017), but it is a fine companion to complete a very rude storytime.