Poo! And Other Words That Make Me Laugh

Poo! And Other Words That Make Me Laugh by Felice Arena, illustrated by Tom Jellett (ABC Books) HB RRP $19.99 ISBN9780733341427

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

The title really says all this is to say about the content of this picture book. The word ‘Poo!’ in a speech balloon is on both fly pages, and the title page shows a bright brown and black face on a yellow background with the word ‘Poo!’ issuing out of the boy’s mouth. 

Made-up words such as ‘BUMbershoot’ and ‘BUMfuzzle’ compete with words such as ‘bottom’, ‘butty’, and ‘booty’, along with nonsense words such as ‘collywobbles’, ‘gobbles’, ‘doo doo,’ and caca’. Words in different coloured and sized fonts fill each page, along with bold and bright headshots of boys and girls. On the final pages is a glossary which explains what all the words used in the book mean. There is no attempt made to create a story as such. The book is really just random, mostly rude words and bold pictures.

There’s not much else one can say about a book which it seems has been published to attract the attention of naughty children.