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Author: Sesame Street
Photographer: John E. Barrett
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2000
ISBN: 978-0375810459
Format: Board Book
Pages: 12
Age Range: Toddler
Kid Love Factor: 3/5
Adult Sanity Factor: 2.5/5
We’re gearing up for Potty Training 2010 (or maybe 2011, we’ll see) in the Sam and Boo household. Thus we’ve begun collecting potty books to start gauging interest and comprehension in the concept. Boo’s not quite ready yet, often still defeated by the technical difficulty of pant removal and not particularly caring whether he’s wet and/or stinky. But he is starting to show much more interest in toilets, provided they’re not Evil Restaurant Toilets of Loud Whooshing Scaritude.
As Boo, due to daycare, has already become
As for the plot, it seems that only babies use diapers. As a Big Kid, Ernie receives a potty as a present. When he has to use the potty, he stops playing, goes to the bathroom, unsnaps his pants, sits on the potty, and ‘goes’. Once he’s done, he wipes himself, washes his hands, and returns to playing. I presume he also does his pants back up, or at least gets a Muppet parental unit to do so for him, though it's not actually mentioned.
Yay for Ernie!
The idea seems to be that familiar characters and very simple text will make the experience more comprehensible and less scary for the pre-trained toddler set. Boo enjoys the book; it’s not one of his favourites, but he does bring it over to me frequently enough that I know he doesn’t dislike it. I don’t dislike it either, but I question its usefulness in spots. Plus side: at 12 pages, it's not long enough to drive me nuts, hence the reasonable Adult Sanity Factor even with the stilted text.
It does have two other things “going” for it: it mentions not using too much toilet paper and it also reminds Ernie to wash his hands. Most other potty books I've read leave out both.
Autism Spectrum Bonus: Too Big for Diapers is probably a good potty book to introduce the potty in a cute and non-threatening way, especially if your kid-in-training has a Special Interest in Sesame Street or puppets. On the other hand, the text is vague at best. Ernie “goes”. He doesn’t pee, poop, tinkle, crap, urinate, defecate, or any other verb (I have a few other favourites I don't recommend saying intentionally in front of your toddler) that might offend parental sensibilities yet be meaningful to literal little toddler minds, especially literal little autistic toddler minds. However, by adding some appropriate words and clarifying the steps Ernie leaves out, I think the book can still be useful.
Bottom Line:
Too Big for Diapers is a Big Kid book. If you have a Big Kid, they could learn to go as Ernie does. Way to go, Ernie!
Huh. It's physically painful for me to write in that style. Almost worth lowering the ASF just for the trauma of having to mimic it, but I'll resist.
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