Cute Toot

April 1, 2024
Grades K-2 Two sisters are playing hide-and-seek in an attic, an ideal location for skulking around dusty boxes and discarded furniture. Just one problem: Baby has terrible gas, and there's no way to be sneaky when your body is being noisy. With a quiet pft, she stealthily lets a toot escape, hoping to go unnoticed, but increasingly larger versions follow. Big Sis follows her ears--and nose--to Baby's hiding place, and after pouncing on her smelly sibling, she joins in the fragrant fun. A competition ensues, complete with noxious green clouds and silly sound effects, until an amused Momma appears through the haze of gas, offering her own toot in response, and the trio collapses in hysterics. The joyful celebration of bodies and families delightfully focuses on a familiar bodily function as entertainment, not embarrassment, reassuring readers that it's a normal part of daily life. Eye-catching illustrations capture the exuberant antics in clouds of glowing green and the purple glow of a dim attic. Uproarious onomatopoeia promises a boisterous and outstanding--if odorous--read-aloud.

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April 1, 2024
Two sisters turn a game of hide-and-seek into an explosively good time. Baby hides in the attic while Big Sis looks for her, but when Baby struggles to hold in the sounds--and smells--of a gassy tummy, both little girls end up finding more fun in letting it all out. Coiled green clouds float around as the sisters start tootin' up a storm. "Usually whoever smelt it, dealt it," the narrator reminds readers. "But in this case? Baby got the first sniff, but it was Big Sis who laid the gas down!" Playful illustrations show Baby's small, accidental "PFT" triggering an all-out war: "PpPpPffffttt!!!" "Bleggrt?!" "CLERB!!" The music of flatulence fills the room. The bright green gas spreads everywhere, making it hard for the sisters to see, so they barely notice when Momma enters the battlefield and gets a big whiff of what they've been up to today. Uh-oh. Is the odor too much for Momma? Turns out Baby and Big Sis have nothing to worry about. Momma shows them she's still got a bit of gas left in her tank and joins her daughters in the fart-y. With gleeful abandon, McDaniel infuses her energetic text with onomatopoeia, matched beat for beat by de Castro's frenzied artwork. Characters present Black. A toot-ally fun, funny, and funky family read. (Picture book. 4-8)

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