Baby Don't Shit Your Pants is a children's book, but it's not for children. It's for their parents. The story is a poetic invocation for sanitary defecation where a toddler is implored by his parents to poo-poo in the porcelain. But the child resists.

To see why, we pour over the luscious artwork of Vivian Mineker alongside the book's verses. Through vivid images she shows that the child's struggle to let go of his friendly lumps of excrement, who play with him and fill his life with joy. Mineker weaves lucid imagery of magical figures and animals who always seem find a...