Dirty Bertie

If you can laugh at yourself a bit, and you are not afraid to talk to your child about boogers, pee and an occasional fart, you are going to have a complete blast with Bertie. We use the recurring line: "No Bertie' that's dirty Bertie!" on a regular basis in our family. The illustrations are very high quality and have inherent humor and consistency, with small recurring characters between pages. Bertie is naughty without being bad, and funnily disgusting. We have other books David Roberts has written and illustrated and find him a great children's author.

I spotted this book on the shelf of a bookstore in Greenwich, England largely due to the illustrations rather than just the content. I bought it for my then two-year-old son while we were living in London. Of course I suspected what others have confirmed in their reviews, namely that it initially taught him about some dirty habits rather than moving him away from them. But that was short-term and with repeated reading he soon learned not to______, or ______, or eat _____ and ______. Still, we both did find it hilarious and over a year later, he's still enjoying this one. And in the long run he doesn't "wee in the flower bed", or "pick boogies from his nose", and he never eats them, so I think one can still argue that the book works. As others have written, he does love repeating "No, Bertie that's dirty Bertie!". This year on a return trip, I managed to find another book illustrated by David Roberts at the Tate Modern Museum Shop - Cinderella (an Art Deco rendition) and it's also a great story with a modern twist. I hope more of his books will be sold here in the US.

What a great book. It is short but it's so incredibly funny that my girls (4 and just about to turn 3) are laughing hysterically at Bertie's disgusting habbits that when we are finished we read it all over again.They love saying out loud - "THAT'S DIRTY BERTIE!".It's just a great fun book to read with your kids and have a good laugh with them as well. Wondeful illustrations.

I'm always looking for fun and interesting books to give my mother, who is a Kindergarten teacher, to read to her class. This one is no exception. The illustrations are great and the story, though short, is hilarious. Little Bertie has many bad habits, all of them quite gross. The members of his family are trying to teach him manners, but it is no easy task. Along the way, Bertie finds that these bad habits are not always wise. This book is not your conventional method for teaching a "lesson," but it will have the kids laughing up a storm and they might even take a hint from Dirty Bertie.

My 6,4 and 2 year old all love this book. They think it is hilarious. They love to shout out "No Bertie, that's dirty Bertie" . I thought it may have been a little young for my 6 year old but I think the "oooh yuck factor" won him over. He liked it so much he couldn't wait to take it to school so his teacher could read it to the class. It makes everyone giggle and I recommend it highly , so do my kids!