GOOD FAMILIES DON'T

With this updated version of Munsch’s 1990 picture book, gastrointestinal distress once more has its day in the sun when bodily functions clash with societal norms.

Carmen is all set to go to bed when she discovers “a great big purple, green and yellow fart” taking up space in her bedroom. “Good families like ours do not have farts,” Carmen’s father and mother tell her. But the fart—who resembles a mashup of Blue Meanie and Mucinex monster—proceeds to pounce and sit upon her parents. Members of the fire department meet the same fate. The ending, in which Carmen saves everyone by scaring off the fart with a sweet-smelling rose and is rewarded with her mother’s handmade fart stuffie, feels a bit muddled: Why would Carmen want to cuddle with a representation of her nemesis? Presumably, the lesson is that ignoring an issue only makes it grow—an idea voiced in stories like Jack Kent’s There’s No Such Thing As a Dragon (1975)—though it’s not conveyed quite as clearly here. Fortunately, Ang’s witty digital art goes all in (including cheeky images of Carmen eating beans and cheese at the story’s start). Readers with a penchant for potty humor will be enticed. Carmen’s tan-skinned, while her father is pale-skinned and her mother is brown-skinned; the firefighters vary in skin tone.

Humorous fare for those strong of stomach (and nose).