16 Best Fart Books for Kids That Are Actually Worth Reading

There are a lot of fart books for kids.

I mean a lot.

Farting dogs. Farting goats. Farting snowmen. Farting flamingos. Farting unicorns. Fart science. Farts with feelings. Farts at tea parties.

One publisher has thirty-seven of them in a single series.

At some point you start wondering whether children's publishing has accidentally discovered a renewable energy source.

So this isn't a list of every book with the word fart on the cover.

And it isn't a popularity contest.

Readit the Book Worm has a simpler standard.

"Does it have farts?"

Yes, Readit.

"Good list."

We're aiming slightly higher.

For a book to make this list, I wanted it to do something besides fart.

Give me a story. A character. A mystery. Science. Great rhyme. Audience participation. A weird idea I haven't already seen seventeen times.

Anything.

Because getting a kid's attention with a fart isn't difficult.

The good books know what to do with that attention once they've got it.

Quick Picks

• Best Overall: Walter the Farting Dog
• Jungle Jimmy Sleeper Pick: Billy Tart's Can of Farts
• Best New Breakout: Gomer the Gassy Goat
• Best Fart Science Book: Does It Fart?
• Best Classic Fart Science: The Gas We Pass
• Best for Toddlers: Toot
• Best for Older Kids: The Fantastic Flatulent Fart Brothers' Big Book of Farty Facts
• Best Fart Book With Heart: No One Likes a Fart
• Best Winter Pick: Freddie the Farting Snowman
• Best True Story: Fartiste
• Best Rhyming Read-Aloud: Almost Everybody Farts
• Best Seek-and-Find: Find the Farter
• Best Fart Monster: Good Families Don't
• Best Fart Mystery: No Tooting at Tea
• Best One Where the Fart Isn't the Whole Book: The Princess and the Pony

Now let's clear the room.

1. Best Overall: Walter the Farting Dog

By William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, illustrated by Audrey Colman

Walter has been farting his way through children's bedrooms since 2001, and there's a reason he hasn't cleared the room permanently.

There's a story underneath the gas.

Walter is a perfectly nice dog with one enormous problem. He can't stop. Billy and Betty love him anyway. Their father eventually decides Walter goes back to the pound.

Then burglars break into the house.

Bad decision.

Walter unleashes the exact thing that has been causing all his trouble, and the burglars run.

That's why Walter takes the top spot.

The fart isn't sitting on top of the story.

The fart causes the problem and then solves it.

That's construction, not just a rude word repeated.

The publisher's own jacket calls it a number one New York Times bestseller with over a million copies sold.

We gave Walter the full Book Explorers treatment, and the reader evidence was wonderfully lopsided: it's the lowest-rated book we've reviewed, because it's rated almost entirely by adults, many of whom did not enjoy reading it while reporting in the same breath that their kids came apart laughing.

Read the full Walter the Farting Dog review here.

Best for: Ages 5 to 9, dog lovers, gross-out kids, and read-alouds where dignity has already left the building.

2. Jungle Jimmy Sleeper Pick: Billy Tart's Can of Farts

By Izzy B, illustrated by Olga Sall

Here's exactly why this list isn't sorted by review count.

Billy Tart doesn't have Walter's twenty-five years of sales history. He doesn't have a giant publishing machine behind him. He has fewer than a hundred Amazon ratings.

He also has one of the strangest premises on this list.

Billy and his mom find an amazing new product at the store. A can of farts.

Not ordinary canned farts, either. Different cans give you different results.

Smart Fart.

Mega Fart.

Breaking Wind.

And one that nobody will explain.

SBD.

Billy's mom eventually gives in and lets him buy one. Billy, being a child in possession of both curiosity and poor judgment, does not choose carefully, and SBD turns out to have some fairly intense side effects.

Can farting make you go bald?

Excellent question.

What earns Billy his place here is that there's an actual shape to it: a kid with a goal, a parent saying no, a temptation, a bad decision, and consequences. Most books in this category stop at "somebody farted."

The book also had genuine grassroots backing. Its Kickstarter finished at $6,630 against a $6,000 goal from 166 backers, and Kickstarter tagged it a Project We Love.

That's why Billy is my sleeper.

Not because he's obscure. Obscure isn't a virtue.

Because underneath the fart cans there's a story.

Best for: Kids who like gross humor but need more plot than a sound effect.

3. Best New Breakout: Gomer the Gassy Goat

By Hayley Rose, illustrated by Nicola Anderson

Gomer has had an interesting trip to this list.

Hayley Rose published him independently. Then Sourcebooks Wonderland bought the book, had it completely re-illustrated by Nicola Anderson, and put out a new hardcover. One wrinkle worth knowing if you're ordering: Sourcebooks currently lists a September 1 publication date and an October 13 on-sale date for that edition, and the author's own site calls September 1 the national release. I can't reconcile those, so check availability before you promise it to anybody.

An indie fart book that a major house picked up and reinvested in. That's worth noticing, and it doesn't happen often.

The hook isn't only that a goat farts, although that's a strong opening argument.

It's the language.

Gomer is a "nosy, noisy, smiley, smelly, classy, silly, sassy, gassy goat."

Try saying that quickly to a room full of six-year-olds.

Actually, try saying it slowly.

You're still in trouble.

This is less story-driven than Walter or Billy Tart, but it has a different weapon: participation. The repetition and the tongue-twisting give kids something to anticipate and then join in on, louder every time.

There's also goat yoga. I'm not going to explain that. It's in there.

Best for: Ages 4 to 10, group read-alouds, and kids who like repeating the funny part.

4. Best Fart Science Book: Does It Fart?

By Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti, illustrated by Alex G. Griffiths

Does a dog fart?

Yep.

Horse?

Oh, yes.

Snake?

Now we're getting somewhere.

Does It Fart? A Kid's Guide to the Gas Animals Pass takes the question children were apparently always destined to ask a zoologist and turns it into a science book.

The authors are actual scientists, and the book runs as a guessing game. Pick an animal. Decide whether it farts. Turn the page.

Along the way kids pick up where animal gas comes from and why different digestive systems behave differently.

You have a question. You have a funny animal. You have an answer waiting on the next page.

That's a considerably lower barrier than "today we will study comparative animal digestion."

Nobody has ever sprinted across a library for that sentence.

Best for: Ages 4 to 10. Curious kids, animal kids, fact collectors, and readers who'd rather have weird information than a story.

5. Best Classic Fart Science: The Gas We Pass

By Shinta Cho

Before animal-fart guessing games, there was The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts.

First published in Japan in 1978 and in print in English for decades since, this little nonfiction book explains what gas is, where it comes from, why it smells, and why passing it is completely normal.

That's the whole appeal. No elaborate fart mythology required.

Your body makes gas. Everybody deals with it. Here's why.

For the child who has moved past laughing at the noise long enough to ask "but seriously, why do we fart," this is where I'd go.

Best for: Kids who want the actual human-body answer.

6. Best Rhyming Read-Aloud: Almost Everybody Farts

Written and illustrated by Marty Kelley

Grandmas.

Teachers.

Dancers.

Singers.

Apparently everybody has been keeping something from us.

Marty Kelley runs through an escalating collection of farters in rhyme while one particular person continues to deny any involvement whatsoever.

Mom.

Sure, Mom.

Rhyme can go badly. Really badly. Most fart books that attempt it produce something that scans like a ransom note.

When it works, though, kids start predicting the rhyme, then joining it, then finishing the lines before you do.

And then somebody farts.

Literature.

Best for: Ages 3 to 7, and kids who love rhyme, repetition, and accusing family members.

7. Best Fart Book With Heart: No One Likes a Fart

By Zoë Foster Blake, illustrated by Adam Nickel

Imagine being a fart.

You arrive.

Everybody leaves.

That's rough.

No One Likes a Fart makes the fart itself the lonely main character. Fart wants a friend. Unfortunately Fart is smelly, embarrassing, and not especially welcome anywhere.

The joke turns into a friendship story, which is what separates this one from the pack.

There's still farting. We're not putting on tiny spectacles and pretending otherwise.

But there's something underneath it.

Best for: Ages 3 to 7, and kids who like their gross humor with a little sweetness.

8. Best Winter Fart Book: Freddie the Farting Snowman

By Jane Bexley

Did you know snowmen fart?

No?

Neither did I.

I had questions about the anatomy. The book did not wait for them.

Freddie works through the varieties of snowman flatulence with appropriately ridiculous names, and this is one of the entries where the concept and wordplay matter more than plot.

That's fine. Not every fart book needs a three-act arc.

Sometimes it's December. There's a snowman. The snowman farts. Merry Christmas.

Freddie also represents an enormous slice of this market: the themed fart book. There are holiday fart books for every occasion on the calendar. Rather than stuff this list with five of them, I picked the one with real staying power and let Freddie stand for the species.

Best for: Holiday laughs, stocking stuffers, and kids who enjoy inventing names for different kinds of toots.

9. Best for Toddlers: Toot

Written and illustrated by Leslie Patricelli

This one knows its audience.

Babies fart. Dogs fart. Cats fart. Parents fart.

Leslie Patricelli's famous diapered baby is here to celebrate the whole noisy business.

The illustrations are bold. The language is simple. The noises are fun to perform, which matters more than anything else at this age.

You do not need to explain SBDs to an eighteen-month-old.

Start here.

Best for: Babies and toddlers, roughly 0 to 3.

10. Best for Older Kids: The Fantastic Flatulent Fart Brothers' Big Book of Farty Facts

By M.D. Whalen

Almost everything else on this list is a picture book, which leaves out a whole category of kid: the eight to twelve-year-old who is far too sophisticated for picture books and still thinks farts are the funniest thing in the world.

Both of those can be true at once. I've met the kid. I've been the kid.

This is an illustrated guide to the science, history and art of farting, and it is genuinely stuffed with information. Where gas comes from. What people through history believed about it. Which animals are the worst offenders.

It's the single most-reviewed book on this list after Walter, which tells you the eight-to-twelve fart audience is real and underserved.

It's also a good reminder that reference books are catnip for a certain kind of reader. Some kids don't want a story. They want facts they can deploy at dinner.

You may regret this one.

Your kid will not.

Best for: Ages 8 to 12, fact collectors, and readers who've outgrown picture books but not fart jokes.

11. Best True Story: Fartiste

By Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer, illustrated by Boris Kulikov

Wait.

A true fart book?

Mostly.

Fartiste tells the story of Joseph Pujol, a real French performer who became famous at the Moulin Rouge for a talent that is difficult to raise at a respectable dinner party.

He could control his flatulence.

Professionally.

Onstage.

For paying customers.

See, kids? The arts contain multitudes.

I'll admit a professional interest here. I've spent thirty years making a living on a stage doing things that are hard to explain at parties, and I have never once had the nerve to try Pujol's act.

This one earns its spot because it takes the list somewhere completely different. History. Performance. Paris.

And farts.

Finally, a curriculum everybody can agree on.

Best for: Ages 4 to 8, history kids, performers, and the child who asks "did somebody REALLY do that?"

12. Best Seek-and-Find: Find the Farter

By Phyllis F. Hart

Every other book here asks kids to listen.

This one asks them to hunt.

Find the Farter is a seek-and-find built around a single question: who cut the cheese? Busy scenes, a crowd of suspects, and somewhere in there is the culprit.

I'm including it because the format does real work. A seek-and-find changes what the kid's body is doing. They're leaning in, pointing, arguing with each other, and going back to check pages they already looked at.

For a squirmy kid who won't sit still for a story, that's the whole ballgame.

It's also the rare fart book that gets longer the more you read it, because the scenes hold up to searching.

Best for: Ages 5 and up, squirmy kids, car trips, and anybody who can't sit through a plot.

13. Best Fart Monster: Good Families Don't

By Robert Munsch, illustrated by Joy Ang

Carmen finds something horrifying on her bed.

A fart.

Not evidence of a fart.

The fart. An actual enormous nasty fart creature.

Her parents refuse to believe her, because good families don't have farts.

The fart disagrees.

Munsch's story has been around for years, but there's a brand new edition out this summer with completely new artwork by Joy Ang, which is why it's worth flagging now.

This is another good example of a book doing something with the joke rather than just landing it. The fart becomes the monster nobody will admit exists, and the comedy is in the denial.

Which is considerably more interesting than announcing that Dad farted.

Again.

Best for: Ages 3 to 7, Munsch fans, and kids who like gross humor mixed with a monster story.

14. Best Fart Mystery: No Tooting at Tea

By Alastair Heim, illustrated by Sara Not

A proper tea party has rules.

Sit nicely. Use your manners. Try not to launch a biscuit across the room.

And absolutely no tooting.

Unfortunately somebody keeps breaking that last one.

Heim turns the forbidden fart into a little mystery running underneath an extremely proper tea party between sisters, and that twist is enough to earn the spot.

Because the kids aren't just waiting for the next fart.

They're trying to work out who's doing it.

Best for: Ages 4 to 7, and kids who enjoy very improper things happening in very proper places.

15. Best One Where the Fart Isn't the Whole Book: The Princess and the Pony

Written and illustrated by Kate Beaton

This is my wildcard.

The Princess and the Pony isn't really a fart book.

That's exactly why it's here.

Princess Pinecone wants a mighty warrior horse. Instead she gets a tiny, round, cross-eyed pony.

The pony is not impressive in battle.

It also farts.

But the fart is seasoning, not dinner. The actual story is about Pinecone's expectations, the ridiculous animal she got instead, and what happens when that apparently useless little pony meets a field of intimidating warriors.

I put it last on purpose, because it makes the point the whole list is built on.

Sometimes the funniest fart is the one in a book that wasn't built entirely around farting.

Best for: Kids who want a genuinely excellent funny picture book that happens to contain a flatulent pony.

16. Best Fart Poetry: The Secret Life of Farts

By Malin Klingenberg, illustrated by Sanna Mander

This one arrived from somewhere else entirely, and I mean that literally.

It's a Finland-Swedish book, first published in 2019 and translated into English by Annie Prime for a 2025 edition. Goodreads has it at 4.03 from 210 ratings, and here's the detail that made me include it: readers shelve it under poetry.

Because it isn't a story. It's verse.

Klingenberg works through farts at the racetrack, farts at concerts, farts from ordinary people and farts from royalty, treating the entire world as one enormous unexplored gas ecosystem.

Nothing else on this list is doing that. Every other book here builds one plot around one fart. This one is a tour, in rhyme, and that makes it a genuinely different reading experience.

It also answers a question I hadn't thought to ask: what does a fart book sound like when it comes out of another language and another comic tradition?

Turns out: rhymier.

Best for: Ages 5 to 9, rhyme lovers, read-aloud performers, and anybody who wants the poetic version.

What Makes a Good Fart Book?

After spending far too much of my life researching this subject, I've reached a highly scientific conclusion.

Kids laughing at farts is not the problem. That's the easy part.

The question is what happens after the first laugh.

Walter gives the fart stakes.

Billy Tart builds a whole consumer craze around it.

Gomer turns it into language kids can join.

Does It Fart? turns it into science.

No One Likes a Fart turns it into a character.

Fartiste turns it into history.

No Tooting at Tea turns it into a mystery.

Find the Farter turns it into a hunt.

That's the test.

The fart gets the kid through the door.

The book still has to give them a reason to stay.

A Word About Reluctant Readers

I want to say something directly to the parent who found this page because they have a kid who says books are boring.

You are not lowering the bar.

There's a particular kind of guilt that comes with buying your child a book about a farting snowman. You had pictured something with a medal on the cover.

Let it go.

A kid who will sprint across a room because somebody said the word "fart" is a kid who is motivated, and motivation is the entire ballgame. It is far easier to move a child from fart books to other books than it is to move them from nothing to something.

Every teacher and librarian I've ever talked to about this says the same thing, and the publishers know it too. It's not an accident that a science book about animal flatulence gets specifically recommended for reluctant readers.

The medal books will still be there.

Open the book. Laugh. Read another one.

That's a win, and it's not a small one.

If You Just Want Gross, That's a Different List

Worth drawing a line here, because these get lumped together and shouldn't be.

Farts are one specific joke. Gross-out is a much bigger category: boogers, poop, snot, vomit, underwear, and whatever is happening in The Grossest Picture Book Ever.

If you came here searching for fart books, you probably don't need me wandering off halfway down the page to recommend twelve books about poop.

They have their own article now. I ranked fifteen gross-out books for kids here, covering poop, butts, boogers, underwear, rotten teeth and the zoo-poo science books, with only the one gassy pony carried over from this page.

The Ones That Didn't Quite Make It

Farty Marty by B.J. Ward, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, came close. Marty is a cat whose food turns his farts into different kinds of music, which eventually makes him a performer. Kellogg's art is wild and the premise is strong. Professional reviewers found the rhyme bumpy, and I'd agree.

The Most Serious Fart by Mike Bender, illustrated by Chuck Dillon, has a genuinely good idea, a fart who is tired of being treated as a joke, plus hundreds of hidden butts to find. It's on my list to review properly before I bump anything above.

Who Farted? is a search-and-find activity book rather than a story, and I wanted this list to stay on books you read.

And two are still in the future as I write this. Todd Harris Goldman's The Fart Book is scheduled for November 2026, and Zehra Hicks's Who Just Farted? for October. Both lean into fart science and both could challenge this ranking.

I'm not ranking books that haven't come out yet.

Even fart books have standards.

One Last Thing

There are hundreds of fart books out there, and a lot of them are near-identical. Whole series built around every animal and holiday somebody could think of.

These sixteen are the ones I'd actually hand to a kid.

If you know a sleeper I've missed, the kind of small weird book that made you stop and think there's something here, tell me. Billy Tart earned his spot on this list with fewer than a hundred reviews, so I'm clearly not counting.

Readit, any final thoughts?

"Yes."

Go ahead.

"Does this mean fart books count as reading?"

Absolutely.

"YES."

Where are you going?

"Library."

That's my Book Worm.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit