Pooh! Is That You, Bertie?

Books concerned with what used to be described as ‘unmentionable’ matters is a recent publishing phenomenon. On the whole this is a good thing: young people should know that these are natural functions and breaking the taboo around their discussion may help to overcome the inability that some adults experience in talking about abnormalities or malfunctions. Most of these books concern what might be summed up (loosely) as bowel function. And among their number we find publications which range between the highly informative, the humorous and, in adult perception, the crudely vulgar – the latter tending to be very popular with certain sections of a young audience.

Roberts’ latest book features Bertie who ‘likes making smells’ and is not shy about doing so wherever he is: at the dentist, the art gallery, in a café. The tellings off he gets for this he regards as unjust as he reflects on the duplicity of others who cover up their eruptions in various ways. For instance ‘when Mum lets off a poot, she coughs’. Granny blames the cat, sister Suzy waits until she thinks no one is listening and then she sounds liker a brass band. So, he concludes, ‘everybody does it’.

Roberts’ vigorous, sketchy artwork is light-hearted, cleverly catching the humour of the situations observed by Bertie in a useful and enjoyable take on a delicate topic.