The Potty Train [Hardcover]

David Hochman (Author), Ruth Kennison (Author), Derek Anderson (Illustrator)

Book Description

The Potty Train is coming! All aboard!

Time to say good-bye to diapers and take the journey to Underpants Station.

Are you ready? Let's chug away on the Potty Train!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Hochman is a journalist whose articles have been published in the New York Times, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly and Forbes. Upon graduating from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, he won the prestigious Pultizer Travelling Fellowship, which he used to visit and write about Australia and New Zealand.

Ruth Kennison has been a travel writer and theater critic, and now works as a professional organizer. This is David and Ruth's first children's book. They live in Los Angeles with their son.

Derek Anderson is the best-selling artist and co-creator of the New York Times bestelling Little Quack series. He is also the genius behind Gladys Goes Out To Lunch and Ballyhoo Bay. He and his wife, Cheryl, reside in Minneapolis, MN.  Visit him at www.derekanderson.net.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416928332
• ISBN-13: 978-1416928331
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Health > Toilet Training
  • #25 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Health > Toilet Training
  • #36 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Family Life > New Experiences

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Might derail your "train", February 1, 2010

By 

Chris Bryson (Midwest US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Potty Train (Hardcover)

I should start by saying my daughter loves this book. But it isn't helping her understand a damn thing about the potty, and in fact seems to be setting up rather bizarre expectations about what is possible and achievable on the toilet. Two main problems:

1) First of all, the text really doesn't make any sense. I don't mean to get all English-major on it, but the metaphors are wholly inconsistent. Kids are literalists. This book is a poorly-conceived metaphor. Not a good combo. Climb aboard the potty train = sit on the potty, right? So what do we make of the fact that "soon you'll be riding the potty train all night"? Given the way the metaphor has been set up, this would imply that soon, the child to whom the book is addressed will be sitting all night on the toilet. I find that a worrisome threat rather than something to look forward to. If you ride the potty train, you will be stricken with dysentery?

2) The pictures are as nonsensical as the text. When the child poops ("chugga-chugga Poo poo" --this is, apparently, the supreme goal of sitting on the potty), they are to wash hands. Great. But the picture is of the child being sprayed with water, and his companions, an elephant and a giraffe, are being sprayed with water. The giraffe is being sprayed in the face. What did the giraffe do to require a face wash? The accompanying text reads "it feels good to be clean and dry." Dry? So we soak ourselves? Other bizarre and alarming pictures include that accompanying the text "the potty train keeps chugging along", illustrated by the train on a track leading into what appears to be a giant twisty sewer pipe. The boy on the potty looks thrilled, but the giraffe looks suitably alarmed. I try to skip over this one so my child doesn't dwell on the looming dark tunnel of waste into which her potty training experience will inevitably lead her.

Today I tried to explain the metaphor to my child. "You're sitting on the potty train." To which she replied, with a wistful note in her voice, "no. I'm just sitting on the potty." Oh, the disappointment.

Seriously. Avoid this book. if your child decides to like it and think about it, it may just derail your "potty train." There are better ones out there.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Downright perplexing, July 3, 2009

By 

K. W. Day - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Potty Train (Hardcover)

Our son loves trains, and we bought a couple potty books to help him begin to understand about using the potty. He really enjoyed this one and wanted to read it over and over. The pictures are lovely, but the content of the book is entirely metaphorical - it's all about a boy learing to "ride the potty train", with little if any content about how to actually use a potty. when it came time to wean him off of diapers, our son was confused and a little scared - he was afraid that "the potty train will go too fast.". We had to explain that it's not really a train, and won't move.

So although it gets a couple stars for creativity and good pictures, it just was not a helpful to us for actual potty training.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an entertaining book on potty training, January 1, 2008

By 

R. B. Slatcher (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Potty Train (Hardcover)

I just picked up a copy of this book--it is terrific! We are reading it with our almost 2-yr old son in the hope that it will get him excited about potty training. He now runs around the house yelling, "chugga poo poo!" It's the first book about the topic that I've seen that is entertaining for the kids as well as the parents. If only we had this book when our older son was potty training.