Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder [Hardcover]

Jo Nesbo (Author), Mike Lowery (Illustrator), Tara Chace (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder

When eleven-year-old Nilly moves to his new neighborhood in Oslo, Norway, he meets his neighbor, Doctor Proctor, an eccentric professor who invents wacky potions and powders—including an industrial strength fart powder that can send people to outer space. Doctor Proctor, Nilly, and his new friend Lisa must go to great lengths to protect the invention and keep it out of the hands of their neighbors, who try to use the powder for evil purposes. This witty, magical book captures the spirit of Roald Dahl—and a sprinkling of clever humor and zany antics will keep kids laughing until the end.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–7—When a boy named Nilly moves to Oslo, Norway, he quickly meets up with an intelligent neighbor, Lisa, and the quirky Doctor Proctor. The Doctor has invented Fart Powder and isn't sure what to do with it. With Nilly and Lisa's help, he sells the regular version to children (and adults) for a little fun and plans to market a more powerful version of the powder to NASA. An evil (and extremely dimwitted) neighbor and his even more stupid sons hatch a plan to steal the powder and make a nice profit for themselves. The entire situation is complicated by a trip to jail for Nilly and the Doctor, a hungry anaconda living in the city's sewer system, and a missing crate of gun powder needed for the army's nearly world famous Independence Day salute. William Dufris provides an excellent performance, perfectly capturing the humor of Jo Nesbo's story (Aladdin, 2009). Even as the titular humor of the tale wears a little thin, his reading will keep listeners laughing, as will the clever use of the powder by Nilly and Lisa to outwit their enemies.—Deanna Romriell, Salt Lake City Public Library, UT
(c) Copyright 2011.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist

A popular Norwegian writer of crime stories offers his first children’s book. After Nilly moves to a new house, he makes friends with a young neighbor, Lisa, as well as an eccentric inventor, Dr. Proctor, who shows the kids his amazing powder that causes loud gaseous explosions (minus the accompanying odor). The inventor’s experiments lead to an even more powerful powder that propels Nilly to outer space and back. Dr. Proctor hopes to sell this version to NASA, but a dishonest rich guy tries to steal the powder, aided by his none-too-bright sons. Things become even more complicated after Nilly lands in jail and an anaconda that lives in Oslo’s sewer system takes on the bad guys. In a final comic scene, the Norwegian army uses the powder for an Independence Day salute. Nesbo tells his fantastical story in a matter-of-fact, deadpan style, and Lowery’s simple illustrations match the dry, comedic tone well. The title promises young readers a story with a bang, and it delivers. Grades 4-7. --Todd Morning

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Aladdin; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416979727
• ISBN-13: 978-1416979722
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #410,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Norse

More About the Author

Jo NesbØ is a musician, songwriter, economist, and author. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Glass Key, the Riverton Prize, and the Booksellers Prize, and one of his Harry Hole novels was voted best Norwegian crime novel of all time by Norwegian readers. He lives in Oslo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the world needs: more books about farting, December 23, 2009

By 

Travis Ann Sherman (St. Petersburg, Fl United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

As a children's librarian, sometimes I look at the rows of books on my shelves in despair. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is checked out in toto, and my young patrons have read all of Captain Underpants. What else do I have to offer them? Errr, Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Secret Garden? Beverly Cleary?

With Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder, I need look no further! I can't go wrong with a book with "fart" in the title. Nor will my young patrons be cheated at check out. They'll be taking home with them a book involving anacondas in sewers, TWO kinds of fart powder (Doctor Proctor's Totally Normal Fart Powder and the more powerful Fartonaut Powder), bullies, villains, chase scenes involving Hummers, dungeons, mustachioed police, a powder that turns you glowing translucent green so that you can see your own skeleton, marching bands, sewer sliding, and a foiled robbery. All tied together with a very neat plot that keeps snapping the reader to attention and in the end leaves the two young farts, Lisa and Nilly (William) good friends. Mike Lowery's minimal line drawings add greatly to the drollery.

Author Jo Nesbo has done a terrific job of creating a great story around what parents have always considered a disgusting and unspeakable human function and what kids, esp. boys, consider to be one which is endlessly fascinating, i.e., farting. Jo Nesbo is to farting what D.H. Lawrence was to that other disgusting and unspeakable human function!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Good for Little Kids", February 4, 2010

By 

M. T. Vancampen (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I ordered this for my 9 year old son; the following (and the title of this review) are his comments after reading this book. As a gauge of his recent favorite books, he is a huge fan of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series and Michael Chabon's Summerland.

"This book was alright. The author seemed to be writing for older kids, like in 4th grade or higher. But, the humor and the silliness is really the kind of thing that kids much younger than that really like. It kind of reminded me of the jokes in books like Captain Underpants; those are really for little kids. Unfortunately, I don't think little kids are ready to read such a long book. So, I would not read this again myself but might read it to my little brother, who is six and in Kindergarten."

I am a bit worried that his review says more about him than the book. But, I share...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, May 28, 2010

By 

Nicola Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder (Hardcover)

Typically when I see a kids' book with words such as "fart" in the title I don't give them a second glance. However, this book is written by one of my favourite thriller authors and the simple fact that he had written a children's a book was enough to make me *have* to read the book, never mind what it was called or what it was about.

Surprisingly, though the book is about an invention of farting powder, there is not a great deal of "toilet humour" to be found. Perhaps it's cultural, or it gets lost in translation, but the humour comes from different directions. I thought this was a delightful, funny, well-written story.

Nilly is new in the neighbourhood, he is very tiny for his age. He meets neighbours Lisa on one side and Doctor Proctor on the other. Dr. Proctor lets them in on his latest invention which is a Farting Powder. When no real use for the powder can be found they decide to sell it as a novelty item to kids, but twin bullies Truls and Trym want theirs for free so Nilly gives them an extra shot in their powder which sends them flying up into a tree. Dr. Proctor has an industrial strength version of the powder which he thinks belongs safely in the hands of NASA to be used for rocketless space travel. But then someone steals the industrial strength powder for evil purposes.

The story is full of excitement and adventure. Nilly finds himself in extreme situations from being sent to jail to being eaten by a boa constrictor called Anna Conda. The story also has a wonderful cultural appeal to it as well with plenty of inside jokes on Norway's size and not-so-famous status in the world. It's quite amazing that Nesbo, who writes such stunning adult thrillers, has the ability to write such a fun, whimsical children's story as well. He certainly is a talented writer. I highly recommend this. It will appeal to both boys and girls, but I'd certainly add this to any Books for Boys list. A hilarious romp. It would be great to see Nesbo come out with another children's book in the future. (Just as long as it doesn't interfere with his thrillers' schedule :-)