Snore, Sneeze, Burp - Moira Butterfield - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Moira Butterfield

ILLUSTRATOR: Ro Ledesma

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction

PUBLICATION DATE: August 19, 2025

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A funny and informative picture book about the various hics and toots of the human body. Educational in content and entertaining in tone. A good choice for any child (and adult) interested in anatomical noises. 😉

You already know that the human body makes sounds. Not counting our verbalised intelligible communication, we still create plenty of noises. Involuntary audible sounds through farts, burps, stomach gurgles (It’s called “borborygmi”! I never knew!), hiccups, and so on; hidden involuntary sounds inside of our body that we are never aware of such as heartbeats; sounds coming because of age or illnesses such as creaky joints or coughs; voluntary sounds we make while blowing raspberries or shushing someone at the library; and even voluntary noises such as claps – the book covers it all. There are also several examples of animal (and bird and fish) sounds, which help in an interesting comparison across species.

You will also come away learning plenty of astounding trivia about many creatures including humans. I think the trivia was my favourite part of the book because it contained so many amazing facts I hadn’t heard of. (Did you know that one creature uses its farts for buoyancy? Or that some animals also make sounds if tickled? Or that sneeze sounds vary across countries?)

The book presents the topics mostly in a fun way, using some children and Charlie the dog as narrators. Charlie is obviously the wisest of them all. Though these narrators keep things light, the book is quite educational as well. A part of this content might be a bit too difficult for some little readers. As the book covers quite a few noises, the explanation is sometimes too scientific. Though the book does try to explain as much as it can in such cases, the limited space for each noise means that some points need to be explored further by the readers themselves.

Each page packs in plenty of information arranged neatly in well-ordered paragraphs and scattered illustrations, making good use of the available space. Whenever there is a tough scientific word such as an anatomical part, its role in the body and its phonetic pronunciation is mentioned right next to it. This is much better than having a separate glossary at the end.

I love that the book ends with a note on “Politeness during body noises” – essential and helpful.

This informative resource is officially aimed at readers aged 4 to 7. While 4-to-6-year-olds might have a lot of fun with the various sounds, the scientific aspects would be mostly lost on them. I’d rather recommend the book to kids between 7-10 years of age, who can appreciate the humour as well as the knowledge better.

The illustrations are quite cute and colourful. Having Charlie and some other animals adds to the fun of the graphics.

Overall, this is a great STEM picture book that would work at home as well as in classrooms.

Recommended to little anatomy and trivia enthusiasts.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group for providing the DRC of “Snore, Sneeze, Burp” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.