A genial red-haired boy with an enquiring mind guides us through this good-natured hymn of praise to rear ends in all their variety. Rhyming couplets cover butt synonyms, characteristics, and raison d'etre, as watercolor and scratchboard illustrations place us in scenes from art galleries to ancient Egypt to a fun fair. The text includes a few nods to natural history ("Patches found on baboon rumps / help them when they sit on stumps") or international usage ("In England, where they call moms 'mums,' / people call their buttocks 'bums'"), but the major point seems to be that butts make the whole world one. (Well, with the exception of snakes.) There are plenty of laughs here and not a single snigger as the matter-of-fact tone keeps the momentum moving right along. "Why do we have butts? Perchance, / a place to place our underpants?" From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This paean to the posterior opens with the claim that, "[e]yes and ears are much respected, / but the butt has been neglected." It would be legitimate to wonder whether Bennett and his publisher regret this overconfident statement, publishing as it does in the wake of Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo, by Ayun Halliday and illustrated by Dan Santat, The Tushy Book, by Fran Manushkin and illustrated by Tracy Dockray, and the sublime Chicken Cheeks, by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (all 2009). But a contract's a contract, so here is yet another book about bottoms in all their glory. Rhyming couplets invite readers to regard animal butts and human ones, historical butts and modern ones, plain old American butts and exotic foreign ones. While it's normally a given that any mention of the word "butt" and glimpse of a naked cheek is enough to send preschoolers into gales of helpless laughter, one has to wonder if even they haven't become jaded by the butt glut. Lester's energetic watercolor-and-scratchboard illustrations can't lift this book above the rest. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

K-Gr 2-This rhyming book covers several aspects of various rear ends, with humor that's mostly on target for the intended audience: "Why do we have butts? Perchance,/a place to place our underpants?" The accompanying picture shows a boy wearing two pairs of underpants, the extra pair on his head. A little learning is lightly woven in: "Some names for butts have foreign flair:/tuchas, keister, derriere!" The lively and slick cartoons, done in scratchboard and watercolor, suit the subject matter. Unfortunately, the book states, "Eyes and ears are much respected, but the butt has been neglected," which isn't really true. The timing is such that this title comes on the tail end of a glut of butt books. If you already have Ayun Halliday's Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo (Disney, 2009) and Fran Manushkin's The Tushy Book (Feiwel & Friends, 2009), you may want to think twice about stocking yet another one.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.