Poops
, Susan K. Buxbaum and Rita G. Gelman’s
Body Noises
, and Shinta Cho’s
The Gas We Pass
have pickedup. I guess it’s time I dusted off my own manuscripts for a couple of sure-(butt) fire kiddie classics called
My Pet Pet Goes Putt Putt
and I
Tawt I Smelt a Pooty Tat!
So how does one create a stinky, gassy best seller for preschoolers? In the case of
Walter the Farting
Dog, it helps if one half of the writing team is William Kotzwinkle, whose previous books include the novelizations of
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
and
Superman III
. The other half is a Canadian educator named Glenn Murray. Audrey Colman’s clever, surreal illustrations also contributed mightily to the book’s success. Still, getting
Walter
published was a struggle that took nearly ten years. “We were surprised by the strength of the resistance,” Murray told writer Heidi Henneman. Publishers, though amused, thought the subject was too controversial for the children’s market. But Murray, the father of two sons, knew his book would be a great educational tool. “Little boys love trucks, dinosaurs, and farts,” he said. “It’s so important to hook them [on reading] very early.”
Now, with a movie deal in the works and an “action figure” on the market, one thing is certain: we haven’t smelled the last of Walter.
IT’S STINKY, IT’S YUCKY, IT’S ICKY, IT’S YOU!
N ow that
Walter the Farting Dog
has set the bar high, teachers, librarians, and museum curators are grossing out little children with butt boom-booms and other bodily functions, much to the delight of parents.
It’s all part of a new “kid science” called Grossology, the study of effluvium and effluents created by our bodies. In the words of writer and former science teacher Sylvia Carol Branzei-Velasquez, “Sometimes it’s stinky. Sometimes it’s crusty. Sometimes it’s slimy. But hey, it’s your body.”
In May of 2004, at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, a stage show called
Gross Me Out!
—designed to teach kids about “the grossest thing in the world: our bodies”—drew 1,200 people over the weekend and became the center’s most popular draw since it opened six years earlier. The mistress of ceremonies, who called herself Sally Snot, asked everyone about such things as the cause of flatulence. “The kids love it,” center spokeswoman Lisa Segrist told the
Los Angeles Times
. “Especially the little ones.”
At the same time, Branzei-Velasquez assured critics that Grossology “has nothing to do with being gross. It’s a hook to draw [kids] into science and reading.” She trademarked the term to market the lesson plans and exhibits (including “Y U Stink”) she first put together in 1993, but in the dozen years since, Grossology has grown to include a new genre of children’s books, including thosein which turds and wads of snot are the main characters. Her own book,
Grossology
, originally released in 1995 and reprinted by a larger company seven years later, has spawned several sequels.
Branzei-Velasquez says kids vote constantly for their favorite gross-out topics on her website ( http://grossology.org ). Flatulence has been a longtime favorite, but in 2004 diarrhea (“the worst of number two”) replaced it at number one. “I want to get [kids] feeling good about science,” she says.
I certainly support her efforts. After all, her kids will eventually graduate to
Who Cut the Cheese?
and
Blame It on the Dog
.
HERE I SIT ALL BROKENHEARTED
I t sounded like a bad joke. In fact, it sounded like the West Virginia joke I told in
Who Cut the Cheese?
about nobody in the family telling Granny that they were going to dynamite the old, rotting outhouse in back and replace it with a new one. “Whooo-eee!” Granny shouted right after the blast, straightening her wig as she sat in a puddle of shit twenty feet away from where the outhouse once stood. “I’m glad I didn’t let
that
one in the house.”
But this time it was
, Susan K. Buxbaum and Rita G. Gelman’s
Body Noises
, and Shinta Cho’s
The Gas We Pass
have pickedup. I guess it’s time I dusted off my own manuscripts for a couple of sure-(butt) fire kiddie classics called
My Pet Pet Goes Putt Putt
and I
Tawt I Smelt a Pooty Tat!
So how does one create a stinky, gassy best seller for preschoolers? In the case of
Walter the Farting
Dog, it helps if one half of the writing team is William Kotzwinkle, whose previous books include the novelizations of
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
and
Superman III
. The other half is a Canadian educator named Glenn Murray. Audrey Colman’s clever, surreal illustrations also contributed mightily to the book’s success. Still, getting
Walter
published was a struggle that took nearly ten years. “We were surprised by the strength of the resistance,” Murray told writer Heidi Henneman. Publishers, though amused, thought the subject was too controversial for the children’s market. But Murray, the father of two sons, knew his book would be a great educational tool. “Little boys love trucks, dinosaurs, and farts,” he said. “It’s so important to hook them [on reading] very early.”
Now, with a movie deal in the works and an “action figure” on the market, one thing is certain: we haven’t smelled the last of Walter.
IT’S STINKY, IT’S YUCKY, IT’S ICKY, IT’S YOU!
N ow that
Walter the Farting Dog
has set the bar high, teachers, librarians, and museum curators are grossing out little children with butt boom-booms and other bodily functions, much to the delight of parents.
It’s all part of a new “kid science” called Grossology, the study of effluvium and effluents created by our bodies. In the words of writer and former science teacher Sylvia Carol Branzei-Velasquez, “Sometimes it’s stinky. Sometimes it’s crusty. Sometimes it’s slimy. But hey, it’s your body.”
In May of 2004, at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, a stage show called
Gross Me Out!
—designed to teach kids about “the grossest thing in the world: our bodies”—drew 1,200 people over the weekend and became the center’s most popular draw since it opened six years earlier. The mistress of ceremonies, who called herself Sally Snot, asked everyone about such things as the cause of flatulence. “The kids love it,” center spokeswoman Lisa Segrist told the
Los Angeles Times
. “Especially the little ones.”
At the same time, Branzei-Velasquez assured critics that Grossology “has nothing to do with being gross. It’s a hook to draw [kids] into science and reading.” She trademarked the term to market the lesson plans and exhibits (including “Y U Stink”) she first put together in 1993, but in the dozen years since, Grossology has grown to include a new genre of children’s books, including thosein which turds and wads of snot are the main characters. Her own book,
Grossology
, originally released in 1995 and reprinted by a larger company seven years later, has spawned several sequels.
Branzei-Velasquez says kids vote constantly for their favorite gross-out topics on her website ( http://grossology.org ). Flatulence has been a longtime favorite, but in 2004 diarrhea (“the worst of number two”) replaced it at number one. “I want to get [kids] feeling good about science,” she says.
I certainly support her efforts. After all, her kids will eventually graduate to
Who Cut the Cheese?
and
Blame It on the Dog
.
HERE I SIT ALL BROKENHEARTED
I t sounded like a bad joke. In fact, it sounded like the West Virginia joke I told in
Who Cut the Cheese?
about nobody in the family telling Granny that they were going to dynamite the old, rotting outhouse in back and replace it with a new one. “Whooo-eee!” Granny shouted right after the blast, straightening her wig as she sat in a puddle of shit twenty feet away from where the outhouse once stood. “I’m glad I didn’t let
that
one in the house.”
But this time it was
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