POOP OR GET OFF THE POTTY!

A potty-training book with potty humor aplenty.

Mason and Mia are ready to potty train. But the story starts before they reach toddlerhood, when a woman holds baby Mason aloft and at arm’s length while a man with a purplish-gray beard holds baby Mia out in front of himself. “When Mason and Mia were babies, they pooped a lot,” reads the explanatory accompanying text. It seems they’re fraternal twins in a multiracial family (mom presents black and dad presents white), although different-colored backgrounds in the digitally produced cartoon art could make some readers think they’re unrelated and are in different settings. But such understanding isn’t the point—potty humor is. Wherever these babies are, and whoever they are to each other, their “small…big…messy…tidy…easy…tough...smelly…and cute poops” are referenced with parents’ attending, funny reactions. Then toddler Mason stands before a green background on the verso and toddler Mia in a yellow space on the recto, each beside a potty labeled with their name. They joke about what the potties are for until they simultaneously realize, “A poop is coming!” Seated on their respective thrones (which have, for some reason, switched pages) they successfully encourage each other to follow the titular injunction.

Distracting design aside, the book’s wholehearted embrace of its subject should make it welcome in many a toddler’s household.