Customer Reviews

Dora's Potty Book (Dora the Explorer (Simon & Schuster Board Books))

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My toddler is a huge Dora fan, and she will like this book because it is a Dora product, but beyond that, it really isn't that great. The story line is unimaginative (once Dora was a baby and wore diapers, now she is a big girl and uses the potty) and it does not keep my daughter's attention all the way through. Too wordy! Also, the button to make the flushing sound is too difficult for her to push on her own.

This is a nice book, no matter what stage of potty training your child is in. The illustrations of Dora when she is little are cute. Dora explains how when she was little, she wore diapers. Dora notices that big kids and grown-ups went into a room that made a flushing sound. Her mommy explains that bigger kids use the potty. Then her Mami and Papi gives her potty SEAT. (This is interesting because it's the kind that sits on top of the toilet. Most books introduce a potty chair. It may be important to parents who want their kids to learn on the toilet and not a potty chair.) Dora says, "First I had to learn when it was time to go. Sometimes that was hard to do, but other times I made it just in time!" and soon after says, "I practiced a lot, and soon I started using the potty all by myself. Then it was time for my first pair of big-girl underwear". "Now I'm a big girl who goes on big adventures! I wear big-girl underwear; and I use the bathroom just like all the big kids and grown-ups. Soon you'll use the potty like a big kid too. And then you'll be ready for any adventure." The book has a button to press to hear the flushing sound of a toilet. You and your child will enjoy this book!

Although we are still in the process of training, my daughter loves reading her Dora Potty Book and pushing the button. She has several "push the button" type potty books and the Dora one is the quietest of these (depending on your view that good be a good or a bad thing). If you have a little Dora fan then this book should be a good choice for you. The language is basic and to understand. Wish us luck!

I, along with many other parents of Dora lovers feel almost obligated to buy anything and everything Dora. It's what drove me to buy this book, and since my daughter is semi-interested in the potty, I thought, "why not?". Yes, the book is cute, it makes sounds (oooh!) and of course my daughter loves it. Please note that there isn't actually a picture of Dora on the potty, just a "before" and "after", which is not very educational. Just don't be fooled into thinking that this book is actually going to aide you in the draining process of potty training. When your child is ready, they're ready, and when they're not, well... they're not, and no book is going to make them ready. Not worth it, in my opinion.

My husband and I bought this book for our 18 month old daughter because she loves Dora and we're starting to talk about potty training. We bought it three days ago and we've read it about ten times to her. At the moment she just loves it because it's Dora, but hopefully in time; once she gets closer to understanding the whole potty training thing, it'll serve a helpful purpose. There's a little button that kids can push that makes a toilet flushing sound. She can't quite push it yet so we have to do it for her.

This book is fun and colorful, and my 2.5 year old likes pushing the button, which makes a very faint noise a little like a toilet flushing. One reviewer said the button is hard to push, but ours is not. This book doesn't really teach a lot about the potty training process, and it doesn't show Dora using the potty, so I would suggest also getting more instructive books for actual potty training: My Big Girl Potty (there's also one for boys) or Mr Rogers' potty book (with real photos of kids), for example. The value of this book, as I see it, is that it shows that even Dora once wore diapers and she made the transition to using the toilet, and that can make a child feel comfortable with the process, interested in it, and eager to be a big kid like Dora. That is well worth the price to me.

About 1/2 the pages in this book actually are about the potty. At no time is Dora actually sitting on the potty! she's not even really in the bathroom at any point. seriously. you read that right.

PRO--potty seat, not mini-potty.
PRO--Has a flusher button. CON--The flusher button is giving out after only a few months.
PRO--There is a father shown in the book, she likes that, fathers help with potty training too!
PRO--She really likes Dora, and Dora looks like her more than other potty book characters.

The book never actually shows Dora sitting on the potty so it doesn't help a child to model what to do.

As a Ph.D. in Clinical Psych and Crapology, I was asked by unnamed sources (ok, my neighbor) to review this book. After carefully reading and analyzing both the Potty Book and the 40 plus comments of "end users" on Amazon, I conclude that Dora's Potty Book is a mixed bag in the genre of toilet training literature now available. It appears that the accompanying "toilet button" with simulated flushing sound is a most useful visual and auditory aid, but that many readers found it to be insufficient in its overall sound volume and occasionally unreliable for their tykes in training. A similarly polarizing aspect was the rather intense Dora the Explorer market branding/product placement approach taken by the publishers and copyright holders whereby readers are led directly to the vast collection of related consumer accessories including the Dora reward potty chart and brightly patterned soft potty seat. Apparently, Dora the Explorer is the Ron Hubbard of toddlers in training as many reviewers were quick to note that their young charges would practically "do anything" Dora told them to do. Indeed, would they jump off a bridge if Dora told them to and is there any chance this is some kind of covert cult or "sleeper cell" in training? Is this Simon and Shuster's form of subliminal programming and hypnotic induction, ala The Manchurian Candidate utilizing the book and flush button to create a dangerous cohort of future book buyers and/or assassins who will one day rise up in mass and take over Barnes and Noble by storm? Pure paranoia you say? Perhaps, but one should not underestimate the powers of persuasion and the overall political and economic capital that a united bloc of Dora devotees could exert now or in the near future both on the potty as well as in the voting booth. That being said, I personally found the book to be excellent as well as very "stimulating" bathroom reading. I plan to use it regularly, if I can manage to go regularly, that is, along with my more adult bathroom reading such as Josh Richman's What's Your Poo Telling You?

I was excited about this book because my daughter loves Dora and it shows the big toilet with the little kid's seat (which is what I am planning to train with.) There is one big problem though...it never shows Dora actually sitting on the potty. Maybe the Nickelodean people thought it was bad for the brand, but sitting on the potty actually is a pretty important part of potty time!