Fart Monster and me: The birthday party by Tim Miller and Matt Stanton
HarperCollins, 2019. ISBN: 9780733340208.
(Age: 5-9) Themes: Birthday parties, Humour. This is the third book
in the Fart Monster series (The Crash Landing, The
New School). It uses simple language, perfect for newly
independent readers. The content will also be appealing and
relatable, even for slightly older children, making it a great
series to try with struggling or reluctant readers. The series is
wonderfully Australian, full of toilet humour and reflective of the
everyday life of a typical Aussie kid. For those not familiar with
the previous titles in the series there is a helpful prologue
introducing Ben and his green fart monster who crash-landed in his
yard. Luckily (and unluckily) Ben is the only one who can see the
fart monster, so someone else is forever being blamed for his
stench.
In The Birthday Party, Ben's whole class have been invited
to Chris's birthday party and the fart monster is there too. There
are plenty of party games and lots of farts being blamed on the dog.
If you take out the constant farting this would just be a story of a
kid going to a birthday party but add the farts in and it gives it a
little more oomph. It's silly and repetitive but the jokes are just
right for the target audience and it is a perfect length, layout and
text for beginner readers. There are black line illustrations
throughout showing the hideous fart monster, which will help to keep
readers engaged.
Nicole Nelson