Even Firefighters Go to the Potty: A Potty Training Lift-the-Flap Story

by Wendy Wax, Naomi Wax, Stephen Gilpin (Illustrator)

Clang! Clang! Clang! The fire truck is pulling out of the station. But wait! Where is the firefighter going? To the potty! Even firefighters go to the potty!

Toddlers are uneasy about toilet training. And in most cases, even if they know they have to go, sometimes they are too busy to bother. In this hilarious gate-fold story, each person--from a firefighter on the way to answer a fire alarm to a zoo keeper on the way to feed the polar bears--stops what they are doing to go to the potty. With humor and no pedantics, toddlers learn that everybody uses the potty.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Parenting

22 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2008

About the author

The Wendy Wax who wrote 'The Accidental Bestseller' and other romance comedies is my cousin. She’s at authorwendywax.com. See the PW Article about the 2 Wendy Waxes.

Wendy Wax is a children’s book author and a collage artist. She grew up in Michigan where she read lots of children’s books. Her favorite authors were Astrid Lindgren, Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, Jean Little, and E. B. White. Wendy has always liked to draw, and she kept a journal from third grade on.

After earning a BFA in graphic design from the University of Michigan, Wendy moved to New York City, where she was a children’s book editor for several years.

During that time, she began creating photo-collages for advertising, editorial, and children’s books. Her clients include: American Express, HBO, Bloomberg, UTNE Reader, HarperCollins, Penguin USA, Gold Digest, Good Housekeeping, and The New York Times.

Wendy currently divides her time between Remsenburg, New York and New York City. She likes to swim, sing, paint, and spend time with her photographer husband Jon (whose photos are often in Wendy’s collages) and her amazing 6-year-old son, Jonah.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I know...glad to have that question put to rest before the end of this year! But seriously - great book for children going through potty training. This book would be very helpful for parents trying to get a little help when things a little stressful. Perfect book to leave in the bathroom!

[Mari · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been AWESOME.
However, there is only ONE woman pictured, with the slight possibility that maybe the astronaut is a woman. (You can't see her or him because the stall is closed.)

Concept? Great. I know lots of kids have trouble taking the time out from what they are doing to go to the bathroom. Seeing people doing cool jobs take the time to use the toilet is a great motivator, and the flaps are fun. However, I'm extremely disappointed that 8 of the cool people who are taking the time to go to the bathroom are men. Little Simon editors - how could you let that happen?

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the *only* potty training book that my 3 year old showed any lasting interest in. It caught my eye based on the title, which I hoped would convince my firefighter-adoring son how important it was to use the potty. (Ok... in reality his true love is firetrucks, but the firefighters absorb some appeal through association.) The "storyline," if I may use that term in its loosest sense, introduces several situations where the key players are missing. These individuals--firefighters, construction workers, doctors, zookeepers, and other characters that would be familiar to the average toddler--are otherwise occupied attending to bodily functions. Lifting a flap on the right side of the page reveals the missing person, with strong visual clues to let you know what they've been up to!

Most parents of toddlers are well aware of how much their children like to participate in the reading experience, and my son was quite happily engaged in lifting the flap on each page. I couldn't give this book five stars, because my son did eventually lose interest, but, as I said, it held his interest longer than any other potty training book, and for that, I am most grateful.

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even if this book were presented as "for boys" (it is not), women should be represented. Even little boys need to know that women can have all of these careers. I changed the astronaut to a woman when I read it to my daughter (because the actual person is in a stall and not visible but the pronoun in the text is still male), but it was still overwhelmingly male even with the change. Very disappointing because otherwise this book would have been great. This book isn't from the 1950s and the author is a woman - I don't get it.

[Gianina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is delightful. How anyone potty trains without picture books I will never know. We have read this hundreds of times... it is parked in our bathroom. What child does not love a flap lift. It is good to teach the concept that everyone uses the restroom but also a fun way to teach a little about different jobs that people do.

[Adele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firefighters use the potty! Love it! It doesn't show what to do, but it does show the child that some our heroes (like the doctor, baseball players, piolots, etc...) use the potty. Cute flaps to lift and have a peak at our heroes flushing, washing hands, reading the paper, and using the potty.

[Misty Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for teaching kids about going to the potty. the lift the flaps in the book really keep them engaged.

[Madison LibraryBookFamily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone goes to the potty. My toddlers loved lifting the flaps to see where all the different community helpers went.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally had to sneak this book out of the house to return it to the library! My child is OBSESSED with this book.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a favorite in my house! My two year old gleefully shouts, "To the potty!" at just the right time.

[Erica Karp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is funny, hands-on book that talks about how everyone needs to take time to go to the potty. Each page talks about typical things the person would be doing on the job (e.g., preparing the plane for take off) and ends with the question: Where is the ___? There is flap to lift up under which you find the worker sitting on the toilet and going potty. The book covers multiple jobs and shows how each and every one of the workers has to stop and go potty. This book could be helpful to teach students that it is okay to go to the potty during an activity. Sometimes students have accidents because they are worried that if they leave an activity to go potty, either the activity will continue without them or someone else will take over what they were doing. This book does a nice job of showing that even though the people had a very important job to do, things did not fall apart and people were willing to wait while the person went potty. In addition, it gave good detail about the important things that are a part of each job. This book is good for all students because the visuals were colorful, the flaps are easy to open, and the print was large. I think all students could attend to this book and be engaged when reading it. It could be adapted though to include alternative visuals to encompass a more diverse population. There was only one female and no workers with disabilities. Although there was some ethnic diversity, the workers were mostly white males. In addition, all the male workers were sitting down on the toilet. It may be helpful to include visuals of other ways to go potty, particularly if students have not learned to sit down that way.

[Findlay Pennekamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen, I knew firefighters drove trucks. I knew they fought fires. I knew they wrapped and unwrapped hoses on the sidewalk in front of Fire Station 35. What I DIDN'T know was that - just like I'm trying to learn how to do right now -- they also GO TO THE POTTY!

Evidently, so do train engineers, baseball players, and construction workers! Bonus bit of knowledge: when construction workers go to the potty, they read catalogues about tools.

What I did find strange was that while the author loved showing us boys sitting on the potty or standing at a stadium urinal... the only woman in the book (a doctor) isn't shown actually GOING to the potty. It just shows her flushing the toilet. So my question is: did the authors just not feel comfortable showing a woman on the potty? Or, as I've long suspected... is it all a lie and women don't even GO to the potty?????

[D'Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The target audience for this book is obviously boys, but I still found it annoying that all but one of the people going potty were men. Granted, the female character is a doctor, but she is shown standing by a toilet, finished and ready to flush, where the men are shown sitting down, boxers on the ground, often reading (one guys is standing at a urinal). It's as if it would be improper to show a lady sitting on a toilet but showing a guy taking a dump is ok. I suppose it may seem a strange double standard to complain about, but I never said I wasn't strange.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review can be found on our blog.

[Chani · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 2 year old nephew and I loved this! It is a must read! Note: for mature (male) children only! Not for the faint-hearted.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute! A bit "disturbing" seeing all the adults go potty, but I giggled at the construction worker in the porta potty!

[Beth Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book for persuading toddlers to use the potty. I was scared by the lift-the-flaps, but it is a fun book.

[Meena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see a tot taking to this book, but it's a big nope for me. I'm sure it can help kids, for them to see people with different occupations go potty, but it also is important they know it isn't just white men who have these positions to take potty breaks from!

The book features an engineer, an astronaut, a pilot- and other positions of prestige. BUT, the only job suitable for the one black man in the book is a waiter (I mean, really?). At least the person who seems to be a woman is a doctor, so yay win for us (?) I guess.

I know, I know--it's a potty book, I get it, but if you don't think the images and content our kids absorb doesn't shape their perceptions of the world and the people of that world, well you are...wrong.

***Additionally, if this is for Firefighter lover, you'll be greatly disappointed as each turn of the page is dedicated to a different profession.

[A Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to find this book as it fits well with the interests of my students. However, I was disappointed that there was only one fem-presenting person who uses the potty in the illustrations, although they could arguably be a man or genderqueer person with a pink shirt and a pony tail. Sadly, some of the instances where more gender-neutral language could have been used (e.g. police officer instead of "policeman") were ignored. This book is very man-centered and white. I still gave it two stars because I appreciate the idea behind the book and think it could be a useful potty training tool.

[Spinster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent concept with some bizarre art.

The airplane pilot is reading a map while he poops. Here's hoping his copilot is competent enough to avoid a crash! A rocket launch is happening next to bleachers full of people who, as soon as the astronaut returns and the rocket takes off, will die or (best-case scenario) suffer permanent hearing loss. I was annoyed that most of the characters using the toilet are men.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, the artwork is great, the concept funny and well delivered, but it's all men until suddenly, there's one picture of a female doctor. Then it's just a brofest again until the end of the book. It's really jarring and weird. I'd rather not have any females at all, or if they wanted to include them, a fairly even ratio. I can't figure out why they did this. There is an astronaut in a stall, but the pronoun clearly says he. What on earth. Who decided this.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is in Q & A format with lift-the-flaps and discussion of the potty. Every toddler's dream. Mine had me read this one aloud ad nauseam. It's really not terrible, as far as potty books go. If you're going to have to read a potty book 122 times, it might as well be this one.

[Twos Bothell · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is a favorite of my twos, it could be better. All of the masculine jobs done by men, and one androgynous doctor. So everyone goes potty, but women don't work? What year is this? It doesn't say it's specific to boys, so this is unacceptable.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone Poops, but for occupations. The flaps are fun! But I wish women were a little more represented in the occupations.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son LOVES this book. The fold out pages and pics of community members on the potty are hilarious and relatable. One of our favorite potty training books by far.

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

While my son loves this book, I do not love the lack of diversity.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It references things SS likes--firefighters, construction, police. And he likes books with flaps. So maybe this will be an interesting one for him to help him with the subject.

[Lenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 1.5 year old liked it and my 5 year old thought it was hilarious.

[Valerie Wyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and so did my son! It was hilarious and I will definitely be buying it.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where is the presence of female professionals? I am really disappointed in this book, written by two women nonetheless, for its lack of inclusivity. I won’t be reading this to my child.