When Parent Bloggers Network asked if I wanted to review Once Upon a Potty, I was transported back in time. While I didn’t have the book myself, despite being born and potty trained after its 1975 release, my little brother did. And would you believe that we (as in the Fire Family) have that copy? Would you also believe that we somehow have the girl version and not the boy version? What were my parents teaching my brother? Interesting.

As you can tell from the picture, the book has been updated a bit. I can’t say I disagree with turning it into a board book. BigBrother started the initial potty training phase (just sitting on the potty reading books) around 18 months. While he was never a real book ripper, I know some other two year old children who can’t handle paper pages. And, also, if you’re reading a book in the bathroom with a child learning how to go, wipe, wash hands and clean up properly, it would probably be best to have something that wipes off easily, right? RIGHT! Smart people here!

I’ll be honest. I don’t enjoy the “pee pee” for making “wee wee” part of the book. I don’t find it necessary to use cutesy names for body parts. We call it a penis. I know some other parents balk at using the actual words so it might really work for these families. When reading to BigBrother, I just used the proper words. (This is fine unless reading along with the CD, obviously. See below.) But, I liked a lot of other things. Cloth diapers, yo! While the norm in 1975, they’re not the norm now but were the norm in this household! It tickled me to see them being used. I also really like that this book “drives home” to the potty training child that the kid in the book had to sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit. That’s one thing that tripped BigBrother up in his learning experience. He doesn’t sit still. Ever. So learning to sit still, calm down and relax enough to have a bowel movement took him awhile. So, big kudos to the book for helping kids understand that hard-to-grasp concept.

A new addition to the book is an accompanying CD. I was jamming along to the first song which talks about both Joshua and Prudence (boy and girl names in each book). The voice that reads the story (Jennifer Morehead) was easy to understand, clear, pleasant and generally easy to listen to. I approved. However, the three sections in which Alona Frankel, the author and illustrator spoke, were hard for me to understand. However, she only speaks for less than a minute all together. So I suppose this okay. The songs were somewhat amusing. BigBrother busted a move while dancing to them as they had a jazzy feel and he’s a jazzy guy.

In short, we really liked the combination of CD with the book. We’ll be keeping the boy version for when LittleBrother someday learns to use the potty. The good news? We also have a girl version! We’re giving it away on the main blog. Head on over, leave a comment about a funny potty training story or a fear you have about upcoming potty learning drama. One winner will receive the girl version of Once Upon a Potty with the new CD. Winner will be announced (and emailed) on October 21 at noon.