As members of the Little Tiger Parents Panel we are sometimes sent books to review. This is another we were sent recently:
Dirty Bertie is a picture book for children around 3-5 years old. I had heard of this character before, but thought it was for slightly older children. When I looked on the Little Tiger website, I realised there are also chapter books of Dirtie Bertie, so if the children enjoy this then they can stick with the character as they get older.
First thing I have to point out with this book, as you can probably tell from the cover – It is pretty gross. It focuses on dirty habits, and all those yucky and gross things that young children sometimes seem to find so hilarious. It is all about Bertie, a little boy with so many bad habits. He eats food off the floor, picks his nose, wees on the flower beds, plays with worms, and many more. Eventually he learns to stop most of his habits, but he still keeps the final bad habit of picking his nose.
Personally, these are not all topics which I like reading about. I am a bit squeamish and I don’t think I would have bought this book for my son myself BUT he did really enjoy it and find it funny. He had a look at the back of the book at the other available books shown, and spotted the other Dirty Bertie book for the same age group – “Pooh! Is that you, Bertie” and said he would also like to read that one. So from my 4 year old’s perspective, it’s a funny and enjoyable book. He does tend to really like stories about people being bad or doing naughty things, as he finds that really funny. There is repetition throughout the book with a catchphrase of “No Bertie! That’s dirty, Bertie!” which children can quickly pick up and learn to anticipate throughout the book.