My Brother’s Butt Is Haunted

Potty humor drives this tale of frightening flatulence from Poblocki and Sanchez. When two siblings visit Gramma and Grampa’s new house, the elders joke that there’s a resident phantom. First-person narration goes on to describe a stenchful night: awakening, the boys attempt to outrace a “ghostly odor,” which reeks of “garbage dumps and baby diapers and ZOMBIES!” Neither hiding in the closet nor escaping to the kitchen does the trick, and the narrator, at last tracing the smell’s source to his brother’s trousers, draws an unlikely conclusion: “THE GHOST IS UP YOUR BUTT!” The duo attempt to “ghost-bust his bottom!”—an event that rouses their grandparents, who clear everything up with a knowing observation (“This place is ripe!”). Digitally colored pencil drawings fill pages with ominous, putrid yellow-green clouds, which waft through descriptions of over-the-top physical humor that embrace the grotesque. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7. (July)