- Graphic Novels
- Ages 7–10
- Comedy
My Big Fat Smelly Poo Diary
Book 1 of 3 in My Big Fat Smelly Poo DiaryView the full series
A full-colour, toilet-joke-heavy graphic novel series from Jim Smith, built for children who want Bunny vs Monkey or Dog Man levels of silliness. It is especially strong for reluctant readers who respond to visual comedy, short episodes and gleefully disgusting humour.
- Best for7–10
- FormatGraphic
- Length224 pp
- Read aloud~1 hr45 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
- Onomatopoeic
Tone
- Funny
- Silly
- Absurdist
- Irreverent
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Pedro, Olga and Ozzy are best friends, better known as the Poopies, and their diary is full of friendship, mischief and extremely smelly mysteries. This first book introduces the trio through a run of bite-sized comic adventures, including mysteries of the sort only a child fully committed to toilet humour could properly appreciate. The storytelling is panel-led, full colour and fast-moving, with a joke-forward rhythm that makes it feel more like a comic collection than a traditional prose book. Jim Smith's Barry Loser-style cartoon energy is still present, but the graphic novel format makes the reading load lighter and more immediately visual. The result is noisy, silly, gross and very accessible: a book for children who like friendship gangs, absurd investigations, expressive cartoon faces and the kind of humour adults may roll their eyes at while children laugh loudly.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 7–10
- Read aloud · 7–9
- Independent · 7–10
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Toilet humour fans
- Bunny vs monkey fans
- Dog man fans
- Gross out comedy
- Reluctant readers
Avoid if
- Dislikes toilet humour
- Needs calm bedtime read
- Prefers gentle humour
Particularly good for children who are…
- Reluctant reader
- Struggling with reading
- Making friends
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A gross-out funny comic-diary series — catnip for reluctant readers and a classroom-library crowd-pleaser.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific delight is the trio — Pedro, Olga and Ozzy, the Poopies, mysteries that only a child fully committed to toilet humour can properly appreciate, panel-led full-colour pages. The Jim Smith series opener for the 8-year-old who exclusively wants poo jokes.
- Friendship and belonging
- Trickery and cleverness
- Adventure and freedom
- Making a difference
Why parents love it
The Jim Smith Poopies debut — Barry Loser's cartoon energy translated into graphic-novel format, reading load lighter and visual register noisier. Knows exactly what it is and commits. Not for the squeamish.
- Quick to read
- Shared humour
In the series
My Big Fat Smelly Poo Diary.
3 books · open the series →
About the author & illustrator
Jim Smith.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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