Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray

Hey, Story Seekers!

Walter is a good dog.

Friendly. Lovable. Great with the kids.

One problem.

Walter farts.

A lot.

Bath? Still farts.

Different food? Farts.

Veterinarian? More farts.

Eventually Walter's family reaches a terrible conclusion.

Walter may have to go.

Then two burglars make the single worst home-invasion decision of their criminal careers.

We're exploring Walter the Farting Dog, written by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray and illustrated by Audrey Colman.

Readit has just discovered that somebody wrote an entire book about a farting dog.

His review may already be finished.

Book Breakdown

Betty and Billy bring Walter home from the dog pound.

They love him.

There's just this smell.

Walter gets a bath.

Nope. Still smells.

That's when everybody works out where the odor is actually coming from.

Walter has gas.

Not occasional gas. Not excuse-me-I-had-beans gas.

Walter is operating at an industrial scale.

The family tries everything. The vet. New food. Nothing works.

Billy and Betty don't care. They love Walter.

Father cares. Eventually he decides Walter goes back to the pound.

And that's the thing under all the farting that gives this book something to hold onto. Walter isn't misbehaving. He isn't doing it on purpose. He can't stop, and the thing everybody dislikes about him is about to cost him his home.

Then, on Walter's last night with the family, burglars break in.

Bad timing.

For the burglars.

Walter has spent the entire evening desperately trying not to fart. He's holding everything in.

Everything.

You know where this is going.

Walter lets loose. The burglars abandon the robbery, flee the house, and get caught.

Walter saves the day by doing the exact thing everybody wanted him to stop doing.

That's a proper setup and payoff, and it's why this isn't thirty-two pages of noise.

Audrey Colman's illustrations carry a lot of it. Walter has a permanently apologetic face while everybody around him reacts to the latest event. The reaction shots are where the comedy actually lives, including a family cat who very clearly has opinions.

Which is what I'd tell a kid to watch.

Don't watch Walter.

Watch everybody near Walter.

They know.

For teachers and librarians: Lexile AD490L · ATOS 3.0 · 890 words · ages 5 to 9, grades K to 4. Frog Children's Books, 2001. Thirty-two pages.

Also worth knowing: this book is on the American Library Association's frequently challenged children's list. In 2004 it was challenged at West Salem Elementary School in Wisconsin and retained. The stated objection was that the words "fart" and "farting" appear twenty-four times.

Somebody counted.

Jungle Jimmy's Journal

Here's the challenge with a fart book.

You have one very powerful button.

Push it too little and why did you write a fart book?

Push it constantly and eventually you're just a person standing there pushing a button.

Walter pushes that button a lot. Let's not pretend otherwise. For the right group of kids, saying the word again is enough to reset the whole laugh machine.

But there's a story underneath, and that's what saves it.

Walter has a problem he can't control. The family tries to fix it. He's about to lose his home. Then the problem turns out to be useful.

And there's a piece of kid logic in there I genuinely like.

The grown-ups see Walter's problem.

Billy and Betty see Walter.

Those are different things. They don't stop loving the dog just because living with him means opening every window in the house.

I wouldn't squeeze that into a lesson about accepting differences. The book doesn't need the help.

Let Walter fart. Kids will find the rest.

For the read-aloud, the only real advice is: commit.

If you're embarrassed every time the word comes up, children can smell fear.

Apparently Walter can produce it.

The fun is in treating this enormous ridiculous problem with total seriousness. Poor Walter. Poor family. Poor veterinarian.

Very poor burglars.

Readit's Review

THIS DOG IS AMAZING.

They take him to the vet because he farts too much.

Then he farts at the vet.

What did you think was going to happen?

Also, Walter eats a giant bag of special dog biscuits and then gets EVEN MORE GAS.

Those biscuits are terrible.

I would ask for my money back.

And the burglars!

Imagine sneaking into a house and getting defeated by a dog fart.

You cannot tell anybody what happened.

"What stopped the robbery?"

"Security system."

"What kind?"

"Dog."

"What did the dog do?"

WE ARE DONE TALKING ABOUT THIS.

Also, I like Walter's face because he always looks like he knows exactly what everybody is smelling.

What Others Think

Here's where Walter gets genuinely interesting, and it's the reason this review took longer than the others.

Goodreads shows 3.95 out of 5 from 3,903 ratings. That is the lowest score of any book we've reviewed.

Now read what people actually say.

Terry: "Kid tested. Lots of giggles, belly laughs and comments. Any book which keeps kids' attention and inspires interaction while reading aloud, is a success in my book."

Christina, a teacher: "I read this book to my students & they adored it. Many of them took it home to read with their parents...that to me is awesome."

Tadiana: "This was one of our kids' favorite picture books for several years."

Amanda has the memory that sold me: "I will forever remember the sound of my girls giggling when I read this book to them. They had a Walter the Farting Dog stuffed animal that made farting noises when you squeezed it, and that made the reading experience twice as awesome."

And Kelly names the use case that matters most: "If you're a parent of a child who doesn't like to read (like I am), it's all about finding material that will keep their interest."

That's the whole argument for this book right there.

Then there's the other side, and it's loud.

Ann: "I could really find little redeeming value here. It's not that I mind a good gassy book... the story-telling here just felt forced."

Malbadeen doesn't hedge at all: "I hate this book. I mean I really, really hate this book."

So look at what that 3.95 actually is.

It isn't a book failing with children. It's a book being rated almost entirely by adults, many of whom did not enjoy reading it, while reporting in the same review that the kids came apart laughing.

Goodreads is a website for grown-ups.

Walter is not for grown-ups.

Belly Laugh Scale

5 out of 5: Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

The lowest-rated book we've covered gets a five, and I want to be clear about why, because it looks like a contradiction and isn't.

This scale measures one thing. Laughs.

Not craft. Not whether I'd want it read at my funeral. Laughs.

And the evidence is not close. Teachers report classrooms adoring it. Parents report children coming apart. A reluctant reader will pick this up. Kids take it home to share with their parents, which is a thing children almost never do with a book an adult pressed on them.

Walter earns the five because the whole story is built on the joke, the joke escalates, the pictures keep finding new reactions to it, and the payoff turns the fart into the solution.

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

Does every adult agree?

Absolutely not. Several of them hate it out loud and in print.

Five out of five.

Open a window.

Final Explorer Verdict

I'd hand Walter the Farting Dog to kids around 5 to 9.

But forget the number. Here's the better test.

Does your kid think farts are funny?

Yes?

You're done. Walter.

This is especially good territory for reluctant readers and for any read-aloud where getting a laugh matters more than maintaining an atmosphere of great literary dignity.

Great literary dignity has already left the building.

Walter farted.

There is more going on than the title suggests. Billy and Betty love a dog with a very inconvenient problem. Walter can't make himself different because the grown-ups would prefer it. Then the quality that nearly gets him sent away is the thing that saves everybody.

That's enough underneath the joke for me.

But I'm not going to put Walter in a graduation robe and claim this is a secret masterpiece.

It's a farting dog book.

A very well built farting dog book, which somebody once objected to on the grounds that it says the word twenty-four times.

They were right about the count.

Readit has one final question.

"Can we get a dog?"

Sure.

"Can we name him Walter?"

No.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit