The Story of the Little Mole - Plop Up Edition - Werner Holzwarth

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin.

The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch - the Plop-up Edition.

I bought this book for my nephew as a reward for using the "big toilet" to do a poo in. Bless him he's been finding it hard to come to terms with poo and toilets and in a last gasp effort to crack this last bit of his toilet training my sister decided that every time he did a poo in the big toilet that he would be rewarded with a book. He told me about this and I said I would buy him one too as I was very proud of him. He went all shy at this point - he is a typical boy!

So browsing Amazon for books in the 3 to 4 year old range I found all sorts of amusingly titled books but this title jumped out at me. It wasn't so much the title but the funny hat on the mole that made me take a second look and I realised that the hat was in fact a pile of poo. Now the title made sense and it made me giggle (I am a child yes!). I thought "How apt" and was about to add to my basket when I noticed in the "other items you might like" that there was a pop up or plop up version as the cover describes it of the book. Without hesitation I bought it (currently this hard cover pop up version is £6.49 instead of £9.99 on Amazon).

The story of the book is very simple. The Little Mole wakes up one morning to find a pile of poo on his head but he knows it isn't one of his so he sets out to discover the faecal miscreant. But being short sighted he needed help. On his mission he encounters various animals and compares their poo to his unsightly hat until he finds the culprit. What is nice is that it helps your child understand at this difficult stage of toilet training (especially for a boy) that poo is a natural thing and not something to be worried about or ashamed about. So as well as having that lovely element of toilet humour it is a helpful aid at this development stage (especially if you are a parent and toilet training isn't going quite as you had hoped!).

The illustration of the book is lovely. It captures the animals in a fun but quite grown up way - they are slightly caricatured rather than being cartoon style and they all have fabulous facial expressions. I could say to my nephew "how is the mole (or whatever animal) feeling?" and he could tell me.

What was nice was that each animal he encountered is dealt with on one or two pages so you could turn the page and a new "adventure" has begun and what is also nice about this is that as my nephew read the book more often he began to develop favourite characters so he could go up to grandad or whoever with the page open and say "this one please". This was another level of interaction which my nephew seemed to enjoy.

When you first look at each page there is no sign of poo anywhere. Each page is either a pop up or another interaction aid such as pull here tabs and sliders, rotating wheels and flaps. This allows the reader to take in the words and then find the poo so that you can discover what it is like and then the child can compare the image to Mole's "hat". This was undoubtedly the best part of the reading experience for all concerned. My nephew's reaction went from "urgh" to fits of giggles and the adults were able to have a laugh too at the book and also at his reactions.

The language of the book is simple but for the younger audience it is quite lyrical. It follows a similar format throughout the book from a description of where Mole is to who he speaks and what he says to how the animal responds. This repetition would be annoying in adult book but it is lovely for your 3 year old as it means that they can anticipate the words and join in with you as you are reading it. It also means you can ask them "what do you think he said?" and you get the answer! There is also a supporting description to the imminent poo which is to be revealed. This is great as long as you can time the description with the reveal. I was hopeless (I don't think I will be getting a job on Jackanory!) but my husband and my sister were much better at it.

The book had his attention from the very first to the last word. He loved revealing and hiding the poo over and over. He loved some of the animals but his favourite page was when Mole, having found the owner of the offending poo, decided to let them know it wasn't appreciated. To us this probably wouldn't get more than a smirk but to him this was hilarious. And for the rest of the day he would sneak up next to us, turn to the page and laugh.

The only slight issue I had with with book was its size. It is quite a big book and because you had all the "pull here" tabs etc you needed to be sat so that the book was very stable. If the book wasn't stable then you ran the risk of tearing the page as you pulled one of the tabs. It was hard enough for us adults to stabilise the book on our laps (especially with an excited 3 year old jumping around) but more importantly it was difficult for him - the intended reader - to hold the book on his own and operate the tabs. Although the book is quite sturdy being a hardcover, the paper isn't that sturdy so I can see after a bit of use the tabs will tear the paper. I can't see this clouding his enjoyment of the book but if you like your books to be kept in pristine condition then I don't think this will be the one for you!

This would be an amusing story in itself but the Plop-up edition adds so much more interaction and surprise to the story and my nephew and everyone else who has to read it to him absolutely love it. Seemingly this is now one of his firm bedtime reads and his constant companion on trips to the toilet. All my sister hopes is that he doesn't take this poo comparison thing too far! So whether you are a child of this age (who needs a hand with their toilet training or not) or you are a parent, grandparent, auntie or uncle (ie big kid!) of a 3 or 4 year old I can thoroughly recommend this book to you. It certainly isn't a pile of poo!

Updated version of my review on Dooyoo