BUTTS ARE EVERYWHERE

An informational hymn to your handsome heinie.

Yes, butts are everywhere, and everyone has one: your fellow family members, your friends, even famous people. Butts have many names: “haunches,” “cheeks,” “keister,” “caboose,” “booty,” “patootie,” and many more, each one rendered in its own style on a double-page spread devoted to this particular set of synonyms. However, your “can” is more than just something to laugh at (or to not mention in polite society). “Your gluteus maximus will propel you into the air if you jump, and your buns will catch you if you fall.” Many animals have butts. Some that don’t include whales, worms, and jellyfish. And animals use their butts for varied activities: Dogs learn about other dogs with a sniff; turtles breathe with their rears, and manatees “toot” to swim faster. And speaking of the fantastic fart, everyone does it, from bees to elephants (humans are no exception!). Yes, there are billions of buttocks in the world, but everyone’s is unique and perfect as it is. Stutzman’s occasionally rhyming text gets the poots—er, points across handily. Little listeners may giggle (a lot), but, in the tradition of Taro Gomi’s venerable Everyone Poops (1993), this cleverly informs on a topic all and sundry may not be completely comfortable talking about and entertains in the process. Fox’s colorful cartoon illustrations of joyous butt-owners of many skin tones displaying their derrieres double the fun. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads at 61.4% of actual size.)

Young readers will be happy to read and reread this dynamic data on their duffs.