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