Daddy and the World’s Longest Poo

Daddy and the World’s Longest Poo by Brydie Wright (Lulu Publishing Services) PB RRP $15.99

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

With its title and cover picture of a man seated on a toilet, it’s obvious from the outset that this picture book is not going to be a work of literature. Told in rhyming verse, it starts with a boy saying, ‘I have a daddy who does the world’s longest poo. Do you?’

Dad is not trying for the Guinness Book of records; rather this is the story of an unnamed boy searching for his missing dad but ‘dad is as quiet as a mouse.’ Eventually there’s a picture of the boy opening the toilet door (despite the KEEP AWAY sign) to see Dad on the bowl with his pants down, shushing him.

Dad is hiding from mum. (After all, where’s a man to go to get some privacy?) The boy says, ‘But why does he hide from Mummy/while sitting on his bummy?’ A few pages along there is a thick stretch of poo issuing from the toilet, wrapping itself around the boy. Mum says to her son, ‘One day when you’re a daddy, you’ll know exactly where it’s at.’

The book is illustrated with cartoon characters with strong, bright backgrounds and the text pages bordered with black dashes. As a picture book, it’s obviously meant for small children and could be of interest to those with scatological tendencies.