by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer
illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Simon & Schuster 2008
I had such great hopes for this story, but in the end the book fails me due to a pair of fatal miscalculations.
The story of the Joseph Pujol, known also as Le Petomane, is a natural for kids though perhaps mostly boys. we are talking about a man whose notoriety and (yes) fame came from his ability to control his lower abdominal muscles in such a way that she could produce, on demand, posterior winds to such effect that he could "whistle" tunes and perform feats of skill.
The man could fart. On command, with precisions, and with such control as to be able to play recognizable tunes. And he did it on stage for paying customers.
This alone is enough to attract a readership, and Pujol's story is a fascinating one to tell, which is why it is odd that the authors decided the book needed to be told in rhyme. This is it's first great mistake, because in choosing to make the story fit its rhyme scheme detracts from the impact. When Pujol makes his way to the stage of the Moulin Rouge for his debut we get this set of verses:
Up on the stage was this tall dashing guy–
Long red coat with tails, white shirt and a tie.
His black satin pants had a very strange shape,
With a hole in the back for the air to escape.
Solemn and calm, not a sign of stage fright,
Joe fired off noises most impolite
Announcing a sound, with a face oh so serious,
Performing it straightaway – Mysterious! Delirious!
Somewhat clever, if flawed, the verse sells the audience short by falling back on rhyme to make an already interesting story seem more interesting. Its as if the authors were afraid that telling the story seriously would somehow turn away an audience. Comedy is a very serious business, and this act is a novelty that is all the more funny for the seriousness with which it was presented to people – on a stage, in front of the well-dressed, treated as a true talent – loses its humor to cloying rhymes.
The second miscalculation comes in the end notes. Now typical of picture book biographies, the authors give a full accounting of Pujol's life as a way of perhaps legitimizing the story they have just presented. The problem here is that the straightforward narrative is far more interesting than the book's actual text. It would have been a much better book, to my thinking, to have illustrated the details in the end notes that were left out of the story. The origin of his nickname, for example, or the true story about how he discovered his talents rather than the oblique and slightly deceptive version that opens the book.
Both miscalculations I think condescend and it is unfortunate because otherwise I think this could have been a great book. It's a natural (or unnatural as the case may be) subject of interest for readers and sad to see it treated so poorly.
5 comments:
I often find the end notes of picture book biographies more interesting than the main text.
I've been thinking about the role of endnotes (of which I am ordinarily quite fond) lately, too. If they are directed at the adult reader, does it suggest to kids that what they just read (or heard) is somehow incomplete? It was actually refreshing to reach the end of Lasky's biography of darwin (One Beetle Too Many) and find that there were no endnotes, just a bibliography (always indispensable).
There does seem to be a disconnect between the book and the end notes in picture book biographies, and sometimes I wonder if they're put there to legitimize the story to adults.
My personal opinion is that in picture books, the end notes ought to be directed to the reader, with bibliography and documentation of vetting for the adults.
And lately it feels like every picture book biography I've read had end notes far more interesting than the text.
My dilemma is this: farts are not allowed in school.
Any kind of fart talk, rather, is not allowed. Some, and I won't name names, cannot resist the impulse to speak of farts. Again, I don't know of anyone who got in trouble for that very thing TODAY. No.
Would the parent of such a school child be able to read Fartiste without fearing that it would immediately be taken to school and discussed?
I absolutely, positively do not want to censor books, but the above issue is a dilemma. For some. Not me, of course.
Susan, I know what you mean about the school dilemma. I picked up the book at ALA last year and read it once to my students. But it was hard for me to read - not because farts aren't "allowed" in school. (In 1st grade them seem to happen with regularity, and it's not the fact that it *happens* that makes it a problem. It's the fact that the huge finger pointing and discussion that follows the "explosion" is such a distraction!)
Kids seemed to love the book. But I had such an odd feeling reading it that one time, that I doubt I'll ever read it again.
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