There seem to be potty training books for every stage in the process. Here are 6 good ones, all rated on Amazon.com as 4-5 stars.


1. I'm a Big Kid Now, by Joae Graham Brooks, MD. Published by Kimberly-Clark,manufacturer of Pull-Ups, 1989. 56 pp including "What Parents Should Know About Toilet Training" and Q&A's, with two versions of the same story: "I'm a Big Boy Now" and "I'm a Big Girl Now." Illus. by Jill Dubin and George Tsui. Soft cover.

What's Good: For the Starter who's ready to go -- via training pants. The child seems to train him/herself -- with parents showing up quietly, only to assist or applaud. Big, cartoon-like pictures, big type.

Could Be Better: A little precious for my taste: The chair doesn't help keep the child dry, it helps the child keep himself dry, and the drawings sometimes seem dopey -- I wouldn't want a child to pick up on that, but everyone's taste is different. Brooks skips the question of when to move from sitting on the potty fully clothed to sitting with pants off. And she says it's OK to play with excretions (she's a psychiatrist) -- I'm not so sure about that one, but there need be no hurry to flush, and the child who reaches into the toilet/potty should be taught, not frightened into keeping his hands clean. Finally, this is another good product from Kimberly-Clark, but I'd rather have seen it as a promotional giveaway.

Rating: Good but not great.

2.Going to the Potty, by Fred Rogers, a First Expressions Book. G.P. Putnam's sons, 1985. Lovely photos of different children and of nuclear families, by Jim Judkis. What's Good: Toilet learning as an acquired skill -- "as individual as learning to walk or talk," and "as natural and inevitable as learning to eat with a spoon or tie a shoe." As always, Mr. Rogers speaks with warmth and understanding and from the child's viewpoint. The adult preface points out that for toilet "training" to succeed, parent and child must work and learn together.

Could Be Better: I wish Mr. Rogers had said "soiled" (an adult word) rather than "messy" (to my ears a judgmental word) in describing used diapers.

Rating: An excellent tool -- warm, funny, to the point, yet open and fair.

3. The Princess and the Potty, by Wendy Cheyette Lewison. Ill., Rick Brown. Simon & Schuster, 1993. 31 pp., 10 or them 2-page spreads; large type, pithy text underneath. Hardcover.

A Royal Family performs the same gyrations as the rest of us -- buying a pink potty, a purple potty, a polka dot potty -- but none pleases the princess. In the end, she herself decides when she is ready.

What's Good; great cartoon-style drawings, excellent pacing, clever (and insightful) text, and a genuine story, not just the narrative common among how-to's.

Couldn't be better.

4. I Want My Potty, a Cranky Nell Book, by Tony Ross. Kane Miller Book Publishers, 1986. 23 pp, illustrated, hard cover.

A princess who does not like diapers and struggles to get used to a potty -- her blushing bottom, her red face as she "pushes," her pink cheeks when she succeeds. An amusing twist at the end shows how life is not perfect but is probably OK.

What's Good: Wonderfully human, good story; nice, quirky illustrations.

Couldn't be better.

5. Everyone Poops, by Taro Gumi. Originally published in Japan. Kane Miller Book Publishers, 1993. 26 pp., illustrated, hard cover.

Big, generous paintings of individual animals on saturated-color backgrounds -- rose, teal, black. Great big type, and a simple text that starts out: "An elephant makes a big poop. A mouse makes a tiny poop." Oxen poop "by the water." Alligators do it "in the water," and a child "wipes himself with paper, then flushes it down." Very sensible.

The conclusion: "All living things eat, so everyone poops." Great.

If the title throws you off, get past it to the text -- very 3-year-old-boy in style, it works.

Could be Better: The typeface is too big???

6. I Have to Go, A Sesame Street Toddler Book with "super-sturdy pages, by Anna Ross, ill. by Norman Gorbaty. Random House/ Children's Television Workshop, 1990.

Little Grover is one child who's ready. He stops play because, he says, "I have to go." No temptation will stop him in his journey to the potty, where his mom helps him undress and dress, but Grover does the rest by himself.

What's Good: great premise.

Could be Better: The Muppets take a beating here as in every CTW book I've seen -- the drawings can't match the characters in cleverness or in coloring. And, as with most "major production" books for children, the text and the illustrations both seem to have been just plopped down on the page. Also I'd have liked to see Grover unfasten his own pants, but that might be all right for a child who wants Mommy to stay in the process awhile yet.

Rating: If your child loves Grover -- go for it. It's a good one.