Rudy's Windy Christmas

September 1, 2015
This British import focuses on Santa's lead reindeer, Rudy, who, as the title indicates, has a major attack of flatulence on Christmas Eve. When Mrs. Claus serves Brussels sprouts for dinner, she eats her own portion, but Santa Claus surreptitiously feeds his sprouts to Rudy (pictured here without a glowing red nose). During the Christmas Eve flight to deliver presents, Rudy continuously passes gas in every country, leaving the other reindeer weak from laughter. To get everyone back home, Rudy puts forth extra effort with green "super-turbo gas" that propels the sleigh back to the North Pole. The story revolves around Rudy passing gas and then apologizing for it, with lots of seminaughty jokes and crude euphemisms. Kids in the U.S. may not get the references to "wind" for flatulence or immediately comprehend the premise of sprouts and their unfortunate digestive effects. But once Rudy's problem emerges, kids will learn all sorts of new terms for passing gas, like "sprouty whiff," "windy pop," "booty burp," "stinky fluff," as well as aurally inflected euphemisms such as "bottom flute" or "rear-end trumpet." Amusing, large-format illustrations in a cool palette of blues and purples follow Rudy on his journey around the world, with his gassy output highlighted in lime green. Just the ticket for readers who are dying to introduce fart jokes into their Christmas festivities. (Picture book. 4-8)

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October 1, 2015

K-Gr 2-After Rudy the Reindeer eats all of Santa's Brussels sprouts during Christmas Eve dinner, his resulting noxious gas amuses his fellow reindeers as they pull the sleigh from country to country. Luckily, that same gas saves Christmas when the reindeers have laughed so much they have no more energy to power the sleigh; Rudy jets them home with a turbo-charged blast of farts. Some of the rhyming verses don't scan well, and Rudy's nose is so subtly hued that kids might not recognize him as Rudolph, but that's okay-the ever-sillier terminology for those billowing green puffs and billows of farts will have them in hysterics. "Windy pop," "booty burp," "stinky fluff," and, yes, "air poop." VERDICT Adults may wince at reading this aromatic tale out loud, but the reaction from the kids will be well worth it.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

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