Everyone Poops
Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi takes about 1.5 minutes to read aloud (142 words, about 1 sentence a page), and it lands best with children aged 2-4.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 1.5 minutes
- Words
- 142our estimate, not a published count
- Sentences a page
- 1
- Re-read tolerance
- 3/5holds up
- Vocabulary
- 2/5everyday words
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The useful verdict
Why Everyone Poops works
It normalises the whole subject by starting with elephants and whales rather than the child - by the time it reaches 'so, everyone poops', a resistant toddler has stopped feeling singled out. The one-line-per-animal pacing makes it usable while actually sitting on the potty.
Before you buy it
Explicit cartoon illustrations of animals defecating. Some households find it a step too far, and it will be quoted at dinner.
Themes: bodies, animals, normalising, toilet.
Same shape, new story
Books like Everyone Poops
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about Everyone Poops
- How long does it take to read Everyone Poops aloud?
- About 1.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 142. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is Everyone Poops actually for?
- Ages 2-4 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 1 sentence a page and vocabulary at 2 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does Everyone Poops survive being read on repeat?
- Yes, reasonably. It stays bearable through the repeat-request phase without becoming a favourite forever.
- Is Everyone Poops a good book for a child who will not sit still?
- It helps that it has a refrain a child can join in with, and it asks the child questions to answer out loud. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.