Review: ‘Gotta Go’ Is Funny, Delightful Stuff

Well, Owen might say no now but, don’t you just know it, it’s not long into their trip to Grampa’s before he’s changed his mind… ‘Mom… I gotta go!’

“Owen? Are you ready to go to Grampa’s? Do you have to pee before we go?”

It’s a universal law of parenting that your child will always say they don’t need to go because there’s always something more interesting for them than going pee. But kids always have to pee, usually just when they can’t – it’s something that us adults might see as slightly annoying and frustrating, but it’s also something that can be a bit of a scary thing for some kids. But in Gotta Go! the subject is addressed in both a wonderfully silly and a gently educational fashion, taking some of the worry out of the problem.

In his case, little Owen’s far, far too engrossed in whatever he’s playing on that tablet, shown in a gorgeous full page full of sound effects and action coming from the screen…

You can see from that striking full page just what Frank Viva’s art is like all the way through Gotta Go! It’s all very stylised with bold shapes, but eminently readable, crystal clear in the storytelling, with a simple palette most of the time that consists of black, white, grey, and a very fitting and very deliberate deep pee yellow/gold.

Anyway, of course Owen should have paid heed to Mom, because Mom always knows best when it comes to pee time. They’re in the car and off to Grampa’s and it’s not long before Owen’s saying those words every parent dreads.

And the way Viva plays it out across a double page is just glorious, using his striking imagery and vivid colour palette to really build it all up. But it’s in the little touches that adults will fall in love with this book, little touches like this where Owen realises that, yes, he gotta go…

The sudden appearance of the yellow/gold pee colour in Owen’s eyes – it’s a great little touch and there’s plenty like that all the way through Gotta Go!,

After that, it’s the ages old game of  “try to think about something else,” but Owen’s suggestions are all hilariously unhelpful…

Thankfully, it’s not too far to Grampa’s and there’s a great page where Viva really excels, the huge vertical panel of Grampa’s apartment on the third floor meaning that Owen’s really got to run because he’s really gotta go!

And although he might start with ‘Run Run Run’ and ‘Up Up Up,’ by the fourth panel he’s had to slow up and keep those legs tightly squeezed together with a worrying ‘Oh Oh Oh’. But don’t worry, the final panel of the page has a perfect little moment of absolute relief… an ‘Ooooh….’ we can all empathise with – because, young or old, we’ve all been there!

With the emergency over, it’s time to go to the park with Grampa, who has plenty of advice for Owen – after all, it’s not just kids who have pee trouble.

So we get page after page of Grampa and Owen playing and with Grampa teaching Owen an unusual but wonderfully silly way to take his mind off needing to pee… dance moves. There’s the Tinkle Twist, the Wee-wee walk, the Piddle Patter, and the Leaky shake, with Owen soon adding his own moves.

And in the background, more of Viva’s great little touches employed all the way through Gotta Go!, a line of people waiting for the restrooms are doing their very own dance moves to hold in the pee!

Frankly, like so many of Toon Books’ wonderful comics, Gotta Go! is just something of a mini-masterpiece, the sort of thing that both you and your children will adore.

Gotta Go! – by Frank Viva 

Suggested reading ages – Toon Level 2, ages 4-7, Grades 1-2

Out now from Toon Books