PBN- Once Upon A Potty by Alona Frankel

Written and illustrated by Alona Frankel the classic book, Once Upon a Potty is being re-introduced to a whole new generation of children. I remember this book with its familiar red cover from my own childhood and I was anxious to see if any changes had been made to it over the years. The only new addition to the book with its characters of Joshua and Prudence is a new CD that accompanies the book. Let’s talk book first though, shall we?

When this book arrived, we were fully entrenched in potty training. My daughter is now in preschool and as a requirement, she must be fully potty-trained and she is. Give or take a few accidents. Along the way we have bought and been given many, many books about potty training. The bathroom door has been adorned with charts full of “success” stickers and for the most part things were going along very well. Then, she wanted to be a baby again. My guess is that with a new baby sister on the way and the influx of diapers as gifts in the house again this was suddenly a more appealing way to go. Literally.

I have to say that at first it was the bright red cover and colorfully illustrated pages that caught my daughter’s eye. She wanted this book read to her at naptime and fell in love with it immediately. While I like that the book does not hold back in the naming of the body part department she liked Prudence’s silly take on what the potty was actually used for. She also snatched the CD out of the book right quick and demanded airtime for it. We listened to the CD as Frankel made her introduction and the jazz-style music that follows was a good way to settle into naptime too. The book is a quick read. Its information seems to really stick, more so than other potty books, into my daughters mind and with it helped us get her back on track in the potty department. Now, napping and sleeping at night without the aid of pull-ups, I think we truly have this book to thank. We have read it so many times in the last few weeks that the other potty books have fallen by the wayside.

For the price of $14.95, you get a sturdy board book and a CD. That is a deal that just cannot be beat. While I always remembered this book from my own childhood, I did not pick it up when it was time to potty train my daughter. What a shame too. To me, it is the best book regarding potty training for parents and for children alike. If I had to do it over, I would buy this book first and probably not need all the others.

This review is brought to you by the Parent Bloggers Network where you can read more reviews about this book and many other great products.

I am giving away the boy version of this book this week to one lucky reader (chosen at random) to comment and include their email address (for contact use only). Contest ends on Saturday, October 18.