The Prince and the Potty

written by Wendy Cheyette Lewison

illustrated by Keiko Motoyama

Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006

Genre: Children Fiction

Reading Level: Baby to Preschool

31 pages

The Prince and the Potty is a children's book about a young prince who's having a hard time getting potty trained by his parents, the King and the Queen. After trying several different approaches, the King and Queen give up and go ask the Royal Wise Man. The Royal Wise Man tells the King and Queen that they need to get the young prince a puppy. They are puzzled by this answer but follow the Wise Man's instructions and take the prince to pick out a puppy. Very quickly the prince and the puppy become best friends. The puppy is given its own bed next to the prince's, its own special toys, and his own food and water dishes, just like the prince has his own stuff. Then one day all of the sudden the puppy pees on the carpet and the queen gets the prince to help her put down a piece of cloth and they teach the puppy to pee on it. It takes awhile but finally the puppy pees on the cloth instead of the floor and everyone jumps up and down and shouts "Hooray!" and the puppy is given a treat. Soon after, the prince has to go potty too, and out of nowhere he decides that he should go potty in his own special toilet. His parents are so proud and there's a big celebration.

I believe that any parent trying to get their child to use the potty should read this book, but they should be prepared to have to buy their child a puppy to be more convincing. :) While it does move kind of slow, kids will enjoy the illustrations and interaction between the prince and his puppy.

As I just touched on the only real problem I see arising with this book is that the children who read it may feel that in order to be potty trained they should get a puppy, which obviously isn't possible or wanted in every family.

I personally thought this was a cute book with a cute little story. The illustrations while not amazing or too unique would entertain a child. Obviously it's probably not very entertaining to an adult but I really do think children will enjoy it and will understand how the prince related his own potty training to the potty training of the dog that he helped out with.

My rating for this book: 3 out of 5