Looking For a Good Book

How to write a book for middle school boys – Lesson #1: Put the word ‘Fart’ in the title. Lesson #2: Include lots of fart puns through the book. Joan Holub’s book Fartboy and Reeky Dog completes both lessons.

Fart Boy and his classmates are on a special field trip to the museum, but someone gave our intrepid protagonist peanuts and garbanzo beans for dinner – an explosive combination! The resulting massive and stinky farts bring the dinosaur exhibits to life! Fart Boy and his friends have to find a way to stop the rampaging dinosaur bones – as well as the evil Dr. Gravypants – who is also in the museum with some evil plans.

I’ve read a few different ‘fart’ books for middle schoolers and I was honestly a little underwhelmed with this. The fart humor was like a high-pitched squeaky fart – a little bit forced.

Like a lot of books for school-aged readers, this is more than just fart and scat humor – readers might actually learn a little something while snickering at all the farts. But this, too, felt forced. You can’t have a book with just farts in it for middle school entertainment – you have to be educational too.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of farts. Stinky, puffy, green globs of farts on every page. This is a graphic novel so we need to see those stink-bomb farts. The art (“smellustrated” … that gives you an idea of the humor here) is by Rafael Rosado. It’s fine. It’s what you might expect in this kind of book.

Have you gotten tired of all the times I’ve written the word “fart”? That’s really what you’re in for if you pick up this book.

On the one hand – I wouldn’t recommend this at all. On the other hand – anything that gets someone to read is worthwhile and I suspect that this may be the only book that some readers will smell … er, read … and that’s okay.  It’s just not my cup of tea.

Looking for a good toot?  Er, book?  Fart Boy and Reeky Dog: Dino Doom by Joan Holub might appeal to middle school boys who fart and snicker in the hallways, but not likely to anyone else.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

2-1/2 stars

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Fart Boy and Reeky Dog: Dino Doom

author: Joan Holub

artist: Rafael Rosado

publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 9780593434345

hardcover, 144 pages