Jurassic Farts product reviews

My four year old was the first of my three children to rifle through my box of review goodies and when she saw this she cried 'Dinosaur!' and then moved on to the next book, until I picked it up, pushed a button and let er rip! Within seconds the book was back in her hands and a chorus of farts rang through the house, driving me batty and wanting to grab it out of her hands but I was a good mummy and didn't. Naturally, when the others came inside she was informing them and the chorus of farts resumed. There is a good range of sounds, so none of them are repeats which is good.

The book starts off amusing you with the author being called P.U. Rippley. This a board book, so it will last being turned often, though I hope the buttons stand the test of time, it will be interesting to see how long the batteries last and there is a set of instructions on the very last page for removal and replacement as well as informing you of just what type you need beforehand. There are 9 dinosaurs and one page about the mass extinction, each page breaks down pronunciation, where it lived and when, beyond that the rest is satire but the kids really enjoyed it.

This is a fun book which should stand the test of time well, the kids love it.

This book was immediately embraced by my pre-schooler when it came into our house. She hung onto it for dear life and would not allow me to take it anywhere without her firmly attached. This behaviour towards the book continued for about 3 days in earnest, though she is still very much a huge fan of it!

Her desire to be close to the book caused a few issues for us, because dino-mad big sister could not get near the book, nor push a button without setting off a dino-sized tantrum. So there were many tears, before everyone got their fair turn with it. My youngest daughter had this as her bedtime story for well over a week. This was huge because her story of choice has been the Gruffalo for quite some time. I can read other books to her, but usually she wants the Gruffalo too. Now it's the Farty Dino book and then straight to bed with a big grin.

Big sister took a great deal of interest in the detail of the book. She wanted me to read every word and to learn about dinosaurs. While a lot of this book is satire, there is something to be learnt about the dinosaurs inbetween the toilet humour. For any kid with a little interest in dinosaurs, they will find it hilarious. For kids not into dinosaurs, I feel they will still very much enjoy it - and they might even look into dinosaurs a bit more because of it too. My eldest actually wants to be a Paleontologist, so while she found this humourous, she didn't get as much out of it as my youngest.

The big draw card, has to be the buttons though. There are 10 buttons, revealing 10 farty noises. Each number relates to a number in the book and a particular dinosaur. My youngest enjoyed matching the number in the book to the number on the buttons and did very well with this. We talked about the numbers and shapes and then showed her on her fingers as well, how to count them out. This was largely a success too. She has only just turned 3 and is a very keen sponge so this was brilliant for her numeracy with the added bonus of a silly noise as a reward.

My eldest laughed herself into a heap on the floor while playing with the buttons. She also played a few practical jokes - pushing the button and then blaming her sister for the fart. Luckily they both have a good sense of humour so there is the fake "whoops" from the 3 year old and lots of giggles. I think that at $21, the amount of fun this book has brought to the house has been well worth it. It's easily re-readable and versatile for play too.