“We Toot: A Feminist Fable About Farting,” by Ashley Wheelock and Arwen Evans

We Toot!
Ashley Wheelock & Arwen Evans
House of Tomorrow (2019)
ISBN 9781733137416
Reviewed by Lydia Dehning (age 6) for Reader Views Kids (10/19)

“We Toot: A Feminist Fable About Farting,” by Ashley Wheelock and Arwen Evans is the story of six girls at a slumber party, and one of them toots. They all meet at someone’s house and eat pizza and play games and then sleep in their sleeping bags. In the morning, one of the girls is away from the other ones and makes a loud noise with her tooting. The other girls notice a yucky smell in the room and try to figure out what made the loud noise and the yucky smell. One girl tries to say that another girl did it, but then the girl who actually did it comes over and says that it was her. She’s not embarrassed that she tooted, because everyone toots. The girls then all agree that they all do it too, and that our bodies are all different and make other noises too: belly rumblings, hiccupping, burping, and sneezing.

I liked this book because it makes me not think I have to be embarrassed when I toot or when my body makes any other sort of noises. I know that I sometimes make the same noises that the girls in the book do, like I hiccup and sneeze and burp, too. I also liked the pictures; they were colorful and looked like real girls. I liked that the girls were all nice to each other and no one was mean or hurtful.

A Note from Mom: “We Toot: A Feminist Fable About Farting,” by Ashley Wheelock and Arwen Evans is a cute book for little girls, or girls of any age, to realize that they shouldn’t be embarrassed about their bodies, since they are all made the way they were supposed to be made. While it should probably be stressed that there is a time and a place for this kind of biological talk, and that it is not socially appropriate to be “letting one rip” at any time or place, the basics of the concept are well said that we girls shouldn’t be ashamed of our bodies or their normal functions. I also liked how they stressed that the girls were all supported by each other and everyone understood that this is not something to stress out about.