Review by SmrutiS -- I'm Swimming in the Toilet... PLEAS...

[SmrutiS]

[Following is a volunteer review of "I'm Swimming in the Toilet... PLEASE DON'T FLUSH!" by Len Foley.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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This book gave me an opportunity to read to my daughter. She liked the book and had a few questions: why did the frog choose a toilet instead of a river or a pond? Why would anyone put a shoe and a potato in the toilet? I can't say I had satisfactory answers to the questions but was happy with the curiosity it led to. Hence, I would say Len Foley's I'm swimming in the toilet... PLEASE DON'T FLUSH! is essentially meant as a read aloud for children between 4 to 6 years of age.

The book suitably appeals to the visual and auditory demands of children. It contains inviting images with attractive and bright colour combinations. For example, the first image of the desert and the sun aptly reflects how hot it is. Further, the font type is varied, with certain styles resembling real life like the caution and danger signs. The auditory needs are catered to by the use of assonance (swim, rim), alliterative words (flush, fuss), rhyming words (sun, fun), and most certainly onomatopoeic words (plop, swuush).

The language used is appropriate in terms of vocabulary, repetitions to ingrain certain sentence constructions etc, except one error 'have me some fun'. Expressions like 'looky looky' seem strange at first though. Foley employs a conversational tone too.

The title attempts to create a suspense (who the I is) that is clearly resolved as soon as one opens the text. However, I am not sure all kids would appreciate the idea. In certain cultures, it might evoke disgust too. At the same time, the frog breaks a rule by getting into the toilet to swim and ends in a mess which could be a pertinent message for the kids.

I rate the book 3 out of 4.

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I'm Swimming in the Toilet... PLEASE DON'T FLUSH!
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