A Potty for Me!

by Karen Katz

Mommy got me a brand new potty!
But I'm not ready yet!
I want to run and play.
Uh-oh, I peed in my pants.
But Mommy says, "That's okay!"
Children will love following along and lifting the flaps to see the child play, sit on thepotty, eat, sit on the potty, sleep, and then sit on the potty...until finally there is success.
Written from a child's point of view, this new potty-training book will help children join in the final refrain, "I'm so proud of me!"

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Parenting, Juvenile, Fiction, Storytime

26 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 2004

About the author

Karen Katz has written and illustrated many books for children, including The Colors of Us, Can You Say Peace, My First Ramadan, Counting Kisses and Where is Baby's Belly Button. Long inspired by folk art from around the world, she was inspired to write her first book, Over the Moon, when she and her husband adopted their daughter from Guatemala, and she wanted to tell the story of welcoming Lena into their lives. Katz loves to paint and experiment with texture, color, collage and pattern. Besides an author and illustrator, she has been a costume designer, quilt maker, fabric artist and graphic designer. Katz and her family divide their time between New York City and Saugerties, New York.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/karenkatz

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has "Me and bunny" instead of "bunny and I", which means another generation of children might learn to do without diapers, but will have bad grammar.

[Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dirty diaper gives my kid the ick but he always screaming IM SO PROUD OF MEERE now

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lift-the-flap one that might spark some interest as we introduce SS to the concept.

2/19/18 Read once. Not a favorite for me and not as interesting to SS. But at least different ones to get the idea.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my kid's favorites. Definitely helping with potty training.

[Tris Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading Jamie Glowacki's book on potty-training (Oh Crap!) has ruined all the cute "prep your child to potty train" picture books for me. All I can see are the common cultural myths and misunderstandings that we as modern parents have swallowed hook, line, and sinker. In Karen Katz' adorable lift-the-flap book, we see a cute little toddler walk through what we consider the typical potty-training progression: getting a potty as a present, abandoning diapers "when she's ready," trying out the potty multiple times but deciding it's not for her or that she's not ready, having accidents, trying it with Mommy, then finally deciding she's ready and going pee on the potty. Boom, potty-trained: "I can go in my potty, and I will do it again!" Now, I have used this language of waiting until my child is "ready," meaning I'm looking for certain physical signs that suggest she is capable of recognizing her body's signals and holding it until she can make it to the potty. But in this book - and apparently in lots of modern parents' minds - we're supposedly waiting for our child's *emotional* readiness. I'm irritated (but not surprised) that this is normalized for my child who is listening to the book. I won't be reading this again to another potty-training child or recommending it to another parent because it essentially tells the child that potty-training is so new and foreign, you need to be emotionally ready to begin. How in the world is a two-year-old - or even a three-year-old - supposed to assess her own emotional readiness? And why would I wait for her to be "ready" to potty train when I don't wait for her to be "ready" to start eating solid foods, or to learn to dress herself, or to learn to tie her shoes? These are skills that she needs to develop, period. When I the parent judge that she is physically capable of it, is when we start potty-training, and I the parent set the expectation that she will go on the potty because she is capable of it.

What I do like about this book is the casual tone it takes toward accidents (because they are part of the learning process) and the ending sentence: "I'm so proud of me!" Potty-training should make the child proud of herself - she's learned a new skill! And depending on the child, it wasn't easy, but she got there! So parents should definitely celebrate it and encourage every success their children have on the potty. I just wish our picture books showed a little more parental faith in the child's capabilities and in the parents' ability to guide the learning process. We seem so afraid to damage our children emotionally that we end up putting way too much weight on them - "Are you ready yet???" that they frankly aren't meant to bear.

[A Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gender neutral potty book! This book uses "big kid" instead of "big girl" or "big boy" and doesn't talk about genitals at all which I appreciate. Also, at the end, the CHILD is proud instead of the parents which I think is good. I just wish the "But I'm not ready yet. I want to go and play" page said "But I'm not ready yet. So I go and play!" instead. I worry that the wording makes it sound like you don't get to play when you start using the toilet. I just change the wording on that page when I read it.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through the eyes of a small child, are they ready for the big potty? Well, not really but by the end of the book they are successful and that’s a start. I liked that we got to read it seeing it through the eyes of a small child and this child has the typical struggles little ones get. They’re not interested, they like the idea of a potty but it’s not the right time, they have accidents in their new undies, and they can’t go on the potty (no matter how long they sit there).

This rhyming book has slick pages so you can gently wipe if off and there’s lot of information inside there for our little ones as they mature into this new responsibility. This little child knows that they’ll be wearing a diaper while they’re sleeping to keep dry and that’s it’s okay if they have an accident (two important things they need to know). I like the bright pictures and the child’s gender could be either male or female. A positive book about this milestone. I do wish that the lift-the-flaps weren’t so close to the center of the book as I find it’s hard to flip them (hard for me and my grandson). I also find that the flipped page doesn’t always get closed properly and they get creased about an inch in from the center. I own quite a few of these flip books of Karen’s and this is what I have noticed. This is a great book to read to your little one.

[Sadia Mansoor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yup... that's the hardest task for any parents! Potty training sure brings its own trouble! It's tough to make your baby come out from their diaper mode permanently & accept the fact that now they have to use a potty.. They have to learn to control themselves & tell their mama that they need to use the toilet.. It takes a lottttt of time for them to learn.. Such a frustrating phase for the parents!! :/

P.S This is my 300th Review!! WOohhooo! :D

[Barbara Mahoney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gentle introduction to potty training. It has a simple rhyming story of a gender neutral child receiving a potty and trying it out for the first time and not feeling quite ready to use it. As the child develops interest in using it, he/she has a couple accidents along the way but Mom says it is ok.

It is described as a lift the flap book but it doesn't contain flaps. It is necessary to lift the whole page up to see what is underneath. I prefer lift the flap.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The flaps are essentially just extra pages that make it even longer than it already is, but it goes through a huge range of potty training emotions and ends with the kid being really proud of finally getting it.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book-- finally a book about going to the potty that is written perfectly for a toddler who is not yet ready to go on the potty. The lift the flaps feature make it even better. Highly recommended for all families with a toddler just learning how and why to use the potty.

[Cambria Labrador · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a prefect colorful read aloud to show how children learn to potty. Potty training is difficult so to have a book through the eyes of the child learning to potty is funny and helpful in the process. The pictures and the words are real and eventually show the good outcome.

[Mama Bearian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rhyming text with colorful illustrations. Baby has a new potty chair, but isn’t quite ready to use it. First, she has to get the idea. Each page has a fold out portion with more text and illustrations.

[Abby Peskin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s time for potty training to start for the little kid in this book. The book describes the process from being introduced to the potty to being successful. The book describes accurately how kids make an attempt but then are sometimes not successful, until they are able to use their own potty.

[Heather T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heather's favorite of the potty training books we got for her in hopes of, well, potty training. Karen Katz books are always favorites for her, probably thanks to the bright colors and rhymes. This was a favorite for as long as we had it from the library.

- Heather's mom (12/22/2022)

[kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute for a potty book

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zach's book.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My two year old enjoyed this. He likes the lift-a-flap books and was pretty intrigued by the book. There were grammatical errors that I’m not fond of.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems like it's more for parents than for kids. It's about how it can take time for the kid to get potty training and they'll do it when they're ready.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the gentle, non-blaming, non-punishing way of toilet training this books portrays.

[Mort's Kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book rhymes and then suddenly stops for one or two of the pages and I find it incredibly annoying.

Mediocre art and the same as any other potty book. The kid likes it though.

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to help toddlers with potty training

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite potty training book so far. It's fun for kids, the rhyme scheme is easy and flows, everything is positive - just greatness all around

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book

[Sarah O. Lang]

My daughters favorite potty book

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read!

[R. L. Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay, but not a favorite.

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun lift the flap book for those in the potty training stage.

[Kaileigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of all the potty books we have, my daughter hated this one 😂😭

[jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a fair number of Katz's books now. I was excited about this one because I find most of her books (either written or just illustrated) cute and fun. But, this book about potty's wasn't that great. Each page having a full page flap to pull out was a little awkward even for me as an adult. I skimmed the text and wasn't that impressed. It seemed to be more about the child resisting potty training then instructing. Maybe I will change my mind when we get to this hurtle, but right now this will not be a go to potty book for us. I also disliked that the child was gender-less. If there is one time that an illustration should have a clear gender, its a potty training book, especailly if it is supposed to be how-to book.