Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi

Hello, Story Seekers!

Today we're exploring a book that does not tiptoe around its subject.

It doesn't whisper.

It doesn't use a cute little code word and hope nobody notices.

It's called Everyone Poops.

Taro Gomi wrote it. Taro Gomi illustrated it. And yes, there is poop. Lots of it.

If you're new around here, I'm Jungle Jimmy the Book Explorer, children's author, dad, and longtime performer for kids. My sidekick is Readit the Book Worm, who crawls straight past the sensible adult observations and finds the weird stuff.

He had plenty to work with.

Book Breakdown

Everyone Poops is wonderfully simple.

Animals eat. Animals poop. People eat. People poop. Big animals make big poop. Little animals make little poop. Different creatures do the job in different ways and different places.

Eventually people join the parade too.

That's the whole expedition.

I don't mean that as criticism. Gomi knows exactly what this book is for and refuses to clutter it with a story it doesn't need.

For a toddler who is nervous, curious, embarrassed, fascinated or frankly suspicious about this whole potty business, there's something reassuring about seeing the subject treated so casually.

Look. The elephant does it.

The mouse does it.

That snake? Yep.

You too.

Moving on.

The book has been doing this job for a long time. It debuted in Japan in 1977, reached American readers through Kane/Miller in 1993 in Amanda Mayer Stinchecum's translation, and the current Chronicle hardcover is aimed at ages 0 to 3.

That age band makes sense. This is potty-training territory, though I wouldn't call it a potty-training manual. It doesn't walk a child through steps or tell them what to do. Its job is simpler.

It makes poop ordinary.

That's useful.

Gomi's writing is stripped to the bone. Short statements. Comparisons. Questions. Almost no explanation. For a read-aloud that leaves the adult plenty of room to pause, point, ask and let the kid react.

And react they will.

The pictures don't hide the subject either. Gomi uses simple bold shapes and uncomplicated scenes, showing different animals and people doing exactly what the title promised. The illustrations aren't decoration wrapped around a lesson. They're the reason the lesson works. A toddler doesn't need a paragraph explaining that bodies come in different sizes. Put an elephant and a mouse on the page and the point is already halfway home.

Gomi also keeps changing what we're looking at. Size changes. Animals change. Positions change. Questions appear.

That matters in a book built around one extremely repetitive biological event.

Because there are only so many ways I can write "there's more poop" before we're both ready for lunch.

Jungle Jimmy's Journal

Here's what I like about this book.

Nobody acts embarrassed.

That matters, because adults have a habit of making ordinary things complicated for kids. Sometimes we explain too much. Sometimes our own discomfort walks into the room before the child has even decided there's anything to be uncomfortable about.

Gomi doesn't do that.

Pooping isn't naughty here. It isn't a disgusting secret. It isn't a towering achievement requiring seventeen balloons and a marching band.

Living things eat. Living things poop.

There you go.

From a performance standpoint this is also a book where the adult shouldn't work too hard. The subject is already doing the heavy lifting. A two-year-old hears the word "poop" while looking at an elephant doing exactly that, and I'm not certain Shakespeare could improve the setup.

I'd slow down on the comparisons and the questions. Give the child time to look. Let them guess. Let them point.

Gomi's simplicity is what makes that possible. There's no wall of text dragging you toward the next page.

It's worth knowing what this book isn't.

If you want a detailed guide teaching the actual steps of using a potty, this isn't it. There's no plot about a child overcoming potty fear either. Everyone Poops is closer to a cheerful bulletin from the Department of Extremely Obvious Facts.

Except they aren't obvious when you're two.

That's the trick.

To an adult, "everybody does this" is not breaking news. To a small person trying to work out what their body is doing, it can be enormously reassuring.

And if the reassurance arrives riding on a large pile of animal poop, nobody promised parenting would be elegant.

Readit's Review

There are SO MANY animals pooping.

The elephant makes a huge one and the mouse makes a tiny one, which seems fair, because it would be very strange if the mouse made the elephant's poop.

I wanted to know about the snake.

Seriously. Where exactly is the back of a snake?

A snake is mostly back.

And then there are animals that poop while they're moving.

I would not want to walk behind those animals.

I like that the pictures actually show you everything instead of saying, "Use your imagination."

No thanks.

I don't need to imagine it.

It's right there.

Also, grown-ups poop too.

I knew it.

What Others Think

This book has been around long enough to collect an impressive pile of opinions.

On Goodreads it sits at 4.20 out of 5 from 7,165 ratings and 876 reviews.

The recurring reaction is easy to spot. Parents mention using it around potty-training time, and plenty describe children fascinated by the animals, the pictures, and the simple fact that the book keeps talking about poop without acting strange about it.

One reviewer, in the thick of potty-training, reported: "We've read it twice today already."

That repeat-reading response makes sense. For the intended age the combination is powerful: animals, body stuff, simple language, pictures to inspect, and a word most toddlers consider one of the finest achievements in comedy.

The criticism is equally straightforward. Some adults simply don't enjoy page after page of poop, and the book offers very little actual potty-training instruction.

Even the professional reviewers split on it. Kirkus called the treatment candid and sensible. Publishers Weekly was considerably less enthusiastic about the directness.

The book isn't coy. If you were hoping for coy, you have wandered into the wrong bathroom.

But that's exactly why it works for the families who like it.

It says the thing.

It shows the thing.

Then it keeps going.

Belly Laugh Scale

4 out of 5: Big-Time Belly Laughs

Gomi isn't firing jokes at you on every page. He isn't firing jokes at all, really. The humor comes from the situation, the pictures, the comparisons, and the glorious fact that small children find bodily functions hilarious.

Read this to the right toddler and you have excellent odds on giggles, pointing, questions, and somebody shouting "POOP!" considerably louder than the room requires.

A five needs the humor driving practically the whole experience and earning that particular do-it-again laughter.

This gets close.

The poop is doing a lot of work.

Final Explorer Verdict

Everyone Poops is an easy recommendation for toddlers and preschoolers who are curious about poop, nervous about potty training, or currently convinced that saying "poop" seventeen times constitutes a complete comedy routine.

Parents wanting detailed potty instructions should pair it with something more practical. That was never Gomi's mission.

What he does instead is simpler and, for a lot of kids, more useful. He takes a body function that can feel strange or embarrassing and makes it completely ordinary.

Everybody eats.

Everybody poops.

It's also on our list of funny gross-out books for kids, where it's the calmest thing on the shelf by a wide margin. Most of that list is trying to make you say "ewww." This one is trying to make you shrug.

Expedition complete.

Until next time, keep exploring those books.

And maybe wash your hands.

Jungle Jimmy & Readit