Potty training books split into two kinds, and mixing them up is why the pile on your shelf is not helping. One is a method book for you — a plan, written for an adult. The other is a story book for your child — a script, written to be read on the floor beside a small toilet. You probably need one of each, and you should buy them in that order.
Which potty training book do I actually need?#
| If you are… | You need | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding when and how to start | A method book, for you | Oh Crap! Potty Training |
| Ready, and want your child to know what happens | A first story book | Potty |
| Facing a flat refusal | Something funny, not instructive | Dinosaur vs. the Potty |
| Facing fear of the toilet or the flush | A joke that makes it small | Time to Pee! |
| Answering "why do I have to?" | The biology, plainly | Everyone Poops |
| Reading to a child who wants to do it alone | A lift-the-flap they control | A Potty for Me! |
Is my child ready? The part a book cannot tell you#
This is the question worth answering before you spend anything, and it does not come from a book list. The American Academy of Pediatrics, on the right age to potty train, says the average age toilet training begins in the United States is between two and three years of age, and lists what readiness actually looks like:
- Is dry at least two hours at a time during the day, or dry after naps.
- Shows signs they are about to pee or poop — grunting, freezing, or squatting.
- Can follow simple instructions.
- Does not like being in a wet nappy and wants to be changed.
If most of those are not true yet, no book on this page will change the outcome. That is not a reason to skip the books — it is a reason to buy one and not seven.
Buy the method book first#
Oh Crap! Potty Training — Jamie Glowacki (Touchstone edition, 2015). For the parent.
This is the book most parents end up at, and it is a method rather than a story: a staged plan, starting with a day at home with no nappy, and a lot of specific advice about what to do when it goes wrong. It has an opinion, which is the useful thing about it — most parenting books hedge.
Here is the position, and it is why this section comes before the picture books. A story book is a script for a plan you have already made. Read to a child whose parent has not decided anything, it is a picture of a toilet with a rhyme attached. Parents routinely buy four story books and no method book, and then conclude that potty training books do not work. The story books work fine; they were just never the plan.
The story books, sorted by what your child is actually saying#
1. Potty — Leslie Patricelli (2010). Board book, ages 1–3.#
The standard first one, and the right choice if your child has no strong feelings yet. Patricelli's bald, round baby considers the situation, weighs it up, and gets there — told in a handful of words per page with a lot of white space. It is short enough to read four times in a row, which is what will happen. Chewable board covers, which matters at eighteen months.
2. Dinosaur vs. the Potty — Bob Shea (2010). Ages 2–5.#
- Written by
- Bob Shea
- First published
- 2010
- Ages
- 2–5
- Format
- Picture book and board book
For the child who has said no. A small red dinosaur roars his way through the day insisting he does not need to go, through puddles and lemonade and a sprinkler, until he does. It never instructs; the joke does the work, and children who have dug in on this refuse a lecture but will happily laugh at a dinosaur losing the same argument. The loudest read-aloud on this list — the "ROAR" is meant to be shouted.
3. Time to Pee! — Mo Willems (2003). Ages 2–5.#
- Written by
- Mo Willems
- First published
- 2003
- Ages
- 2–5
- Format
- Picture book
For fear rather than refusal. A crowd of encouraging mice hold up signs and talk a child through it, step by step, with Willems's timing doing the reassurance. The steps are genuinely sequential — notice, stop what you are doing, go, wash — so a child who is frightened of getting it wrong gets an order to hold on to. Some editions ship with a sticker chart, which parents either love or ignore.
4. Everyone Poops — Tarō Gomi (1993). Ages 2–5.#
- Written by
- Tarō Gomi
- First published
- 1993
- Ages
- 2–5
- Format
- Picture book and board book
For "why do I have to?" An elephant makes a big one, a mouse makes a small one, and everybody does it. It answers the question by removing the strangeness rather than by persuading, and for some children that is the entire blocker. Written by Tarō Gomi, who both wrote and illustrated it; the English edition is from 1993, and the Japanese original, Minna Unchi, is from 1977. It is matter-of-fact rather than giggly, and a child who finds the subject enormously funny may prefer the dinosaur.
5. A Potty for Me! — Karen Katz (2005). Lift-the-flap, ages 1–3.#
- Written by
- Karen Katz
- First published
- 2005
- Ages
- 1–3
- Format
- Lift-the-flap board book
For the child who wants to do it themselves. Flaps put the child in charge of the reveal, which is the whole appeal at this age — the book asks and they answer with their hands. It also shows the accidents, plainly and without drama, which is a small kindness on about day two. The flaps take a beating; buy it knowing that.
The two moments none of these books cover#
Both are normal, both send parents back to search for another book, and neither is a book problem.
Your child was doing fine and has stopped. The American Academy of Pediatrics, on potty training regression, names the usual triggers plainly — a new sibling, a move, illness, family conflict, a change in childcare or the start of preschool. Their guidance is to look for the cause rather than the technique, and they are reassuring about the timeline: "regression usually doesn't last very long. In many cases, the child picks up where she left off… after a few days or weeks." A seventh book will not shorten that. Reading the one they already like, again, might.
They will wee but not poo. This one is common enough to feel personal and is not. Older toddlers can withhold deliberately — sometimes as stress, sometimes because a two-year-old has worked out this is a thing they get to decide. It can tip into real constipation, which is a reason to call your pediatrician rather than to buy Everyone Poops a second time.
⚠️ Neither of these is on any potty-book list, which is worth noticing: the lists are written to recommend books, so they describe the problems books solve.
Two things to skip#
Skip the gendered editions unless your child picks one. Several titles — the Potty Book pair, the Big Girl Panties and Big Boy Underpants pair — ship in matched boy and girl versions with almost nothing different in the text. They exist so a household with two children buys two copies. If your child has a preference, follow it; otherwise one book is one book.
Skip building a stack. Five potty books read once each do less than one book read twenty times. The value is the script becoming familiar, and familiarity needs repetition, not variety.
What to read next#
- Books about starting kindergarten — the next transition, handled the same way.
- Books about feelings for toddlers — for when the refusal is not about the toilet at all.
- Every article in the journal — all our reading guides in one list.
Can a personalized children's book with a photo help with potty training?#
It can, for one specific reason, and it is worth being precise about it.
Every book above is about a dinosaur, a mouse, or a round cartoon baby. That distance is often helpful — it is easier to laugh at a dinosaur refusing than to be told about yourself. But some children get stuck exactly there: they will happily read about the dinosaur and then not connect it to their own bathroom, their own step stool, the toilet that makes the loud noise.
KindFable closes that gap. You write a few sentences about what is actually happening this week — the potty in the blue bathroom, the toy that comes along, the flush they do not like — and one photo, and it comes back as a 32-page picture book where your child is the one doing it, in one of nine art styles. Story length follows the age you enter, so a two-year-old's book is short enough to read four times before bed.
It is a script with their name in it. That is the whole idea, and it is the same reason a personalized children's book with a photo works for a new sibling or a first day at nursery — the child is not being taught, they are being shown themselves already managing it.
The actual book
Read it, and hear it
Everything below is the finished book — not a mock-up, not a selection of the good pages. The song is the one the family received.
The photo they uploaded
The character we drew
Written from this story — not a stock track with a name dropped in. Free with every book.
The full story, in text
- 1Yesterday, rain drummed all morning. When it stopped, Liam pulled on his yellow raincoat and red rubber boots.
- 2The pavement shone. Liam stepped outside, where every puddle held a wobbly piece of sky.
- 3Liam wanted to jump in every puddle on the way to the park. Plip, splash, stomp, he began.
- 4The first puddle went plip. Liam landed in it with both boots, and cold water flicked his knees.
- 5The next puddle went splash. Liam jumped higher, and a fan of water tickled his hands.
- 6Liam stomped through another puddle. Water swished around his boots, while rain drops slid from his sleeves.
- 7At last, Liam reached the park. There, beside the path, waited the biggest puddle of all.
- 8Liam looked at its glassy surface. He bent his knees, ready for one enormous jump.
- 9Then Liam jumped. Splash went the puddle, up past his knees, past his coat, almost to his ears.
- 10Water sparkled beside Liam's ears. He laughed so hard that his boots landed with one final, soggy thump.
- 11Liam sat on the curb, soaked from sleeves to boots. He laughed until he had to catch his breath.
- 12The biggest puddle rested beside Liam, full of bright sky. He sat there, soaked and smiling, with the park all around him.
The words to the song
[Verse 1] Rain drummed all morning long Liam wore his coat and boots Yellow coat and red boots too Puddles held the sky [Chorus] Plip, splash, stomp, hooray! Jump in puddles, laugh and play Liam, Liam, jump up high Splash the puddles to the sky [Verse 2] Liam reached the park at last The biggest puddle waited there Liam jumped with both his boots Water sparkled by his ears [Chorus] Plip, splash, stomp, hooray! Jump in puddles, laugh and play Liam, Liam, jump up high Splash the puddles to the sky
The painted cover is free — you see your child on the front of their own book before you decide anything. After that it is a softcover or a hardcover (the current prices sit on one page, and the hardcover ships free with the whole story narrated).
Start with the photo, or read a real book first.
Book covers are shown unaltered for identification, sourced from Open Library. Each cover remains the property of its publisher and illustrator. KindFable is not affiliated with any of the books recommended here.
