Burp! inaugurates a new series that explains the functions of human body parts using a combination of facts, anecdotes, and child-oriented experiments. Author Diane Swanson and illustrator Rose Cowles both bring to the project a wealth of experience and an obvious understanding of children’s sometimes coarse sensibilities. This book overflows with grotesque details; in fact, it put me off my food.

Now, I’m not squeamish in the least, so I imagine many parents and teachers will have the same reaction. Young readers are another matter. They can revel in the parade of weirdos offered up to them in sidebars (like M. Mangetout who ate an entire Cessna light airplane), and “gross out” each other reading aloud the peculiarities of the digestive system – ours and other animals (“vultures’ vomit is so stinky that they sometimes use it to turn away their enemies”). The book tricks kids into ingesting information by pandering to their lowest tastes and their shortest attention spans. Each page is divided into garish panels featuring factoids. It defies a reader to get a real sense of the whole process of eating and digestion (which Swanson describes in lively prose) because the layout distracts at every turn.

The crass illustrations likewise relish the scatological. The pictures of the poor boy straining on the toilet for 45 minutes are sure to encourage more bathroom humour in young readers. Furthermore, despite the text’s reminders about the importance of nutrition, almost every food depicted is junk — fries, soft drinks, cotton candy, and burgers. Burp! will certainly appeal to children, but can adults stomach it?