GOTTA GO!

In this graphic easy reader, Owen learns techniques for forestalling the inevitable need to pee.

Absorbed with a game in the car, Owen realizes 10 minutes from Grandpa’s house that “I gotta go!” Mom helps the child think of something else (steering Owen away from such counterproductive images as a waterfall, running faucet, and water pistol). As the child rushes into the bathroom of Grandpa’s third-floor walk-up just in time, Viva fills a double-page spread with Owen’s relieved face. At the park with Grandpa and Whizzer the dog, Owen learns that older folks get up early because they need to pee. Grandpa wryly introduces the child to several dances that help him stem the urge. After learning the “Tinkle Twist” and the “Wee-Wee Walk,” Owen collaborates with Grandpa on the “Pee-pee Hop,” the “Piddle Patter,” and the “Leaky Shake.” (Unbeknownst to the pair, an ever growing line has formed for the public restrooms behind them.) When Mom arrives to pick Owen up, she’s introduced to the dances as the line of waiting-to-go people, practicing their own set of urge diversions, begin to adopt some of the intergenerational duo’s moves. Viva’s crisply stylized graphics employ a palette of flat black, white, and gray, accented with a certain yellow in a watercolorlike texture. The family’s skin tone is light brown; other characters are diverse. Comics conventions like silhouettes and exaggerated perspective round out the package.

Funny—and comically instructive.