Dad Needs a NEW BUM!  
Dawn McMillan Ill. Ross Kinnaird

                                                                                                 

Dad Needs a NEW BUM! 
Dawn McMillan
Ill. Ross Kinnaird
Oratia Books (2026)
Picture book
32 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 991353 04 7

 

‘Poor Dad’s face is red. He’s shaking his head.
And I know I have to help.’

 

This picture book is a sequel to such familiar volumes as I Need a New Bum! (2012), I’ve Broken My Bum! (2019), My Bum is So Noisy! (2021), My Bum is So Cheeky! (2022), My Bum is So Chrismassy! (2022), My Bum is So Spooky (2023), My Bum’s on the Run! (2023), My Dad’s Runaway Bum! (2024) and Santa Needs a new Bum! (2025). In other words, welcome to the world’s longest-running fart joke.

 

Dawn McMillan writes witty verses, and Ross Kinnaird creates witty illustrations. They have worked hard to achieve their international success. Amazingly, they have also managed to deliver an amusing surprise ending to this thirteenth volume.  Pun-lovers will have spotted that is published just  in time for Farters’ Day. [Meanwhile a Texas court has ruled that librarians have to reinstate the McMillan-Kinnaird titles, previously removed after objections to the term New Butt used in the USA versions. No problems in Australia or the UK with the New Bum titles.]

 

Dad needs a New Bum! begins with the usual suspects. For once, the ‘boy in red pants’ is not in trouble. Instead, he is virtuously pointing the finger at his Dad, while Sister sulks, Mum frowns, Grandpa holds his nose and the dog rolls his eyes. Seated in his armchair, Dad is surrounded by noxious fumes (depicted as an acid-green fog).

‘And everybody says, “Oooh, Dad, that has to be you!”
But Dad says, “No! Not me! Not True!’

 

Bright colours and simple shapes are Ross Kinnaird’s pictorial hallmark and his illustrations are a riot of movement and colour, perfectly matched to Dawn McMillan’s verse storytelling. I have often mentioned the way the boy’s dog manages to pop up in every picture but in this story the nasty green miasma also appears in every picture. 

 

Does Dad really need a new bum? The mystery smell problem only worsens as members of the extended family arrive. Grandma tries bringing roses, without success. Aunty and the ‘boy in red pants’ go for a (very funny) hi-tech solution which fails to solve anything. Perfumes and diets don’t help. Then, just as the cousins arrive, the ‘boy in red pants’ spots something which the reader should have noticed right from the first picture. The cause of the pong is identified and a much-higher-tech solution to the smelly problem is produced.

‘And poor Dad’s had the blame!’

 

The cheerful conclusion sees order restored, Dad vindicated and the home environment protected. A perfect ending for the series, perhaps? Not at all. A new volume can be looked for in 2027

 

Trevor Agnew

25 July 2026  [Review 3855.]