This review is going to stink. Figuratively speaking anyway Because this post is about a smart, weird and stinky detective named 屁屁侦探 loosely translated in Chinese as Butt Detective.
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About the 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective Books
屁屁侦探 Butt Detective is an interesting series of books, written and illustrated by Japanese authors Troll. The main protagonist is a detective with a bum shaped face. Yes, you read that right. Bum shaped face. Think of Sherlock Holmes with a bum shaped face and you have 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective down pat.
Don’t judge a person by its (bum-shaped) face!! 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective is a seriously smart, intuitive and brave man who, along with his cutie dog sidekick (a la Mr Watson) solves the most challenging of crimes, and is never afraid to help those in need.
These books are popular all over Asia, have also been created into animations and even a Switch game!
屁屁侦探 Butt Detective’s super power is…. you guessed the power of his posterior. While it sounds like a (disgusting power a la Dog Man which coincidentally all my kids love), it is never portrayed in a silly manner. It actually feels natural and obvious, and not offensive at all.
And his catch phrase is “噗，有可疑的味道” i.e. Hmmm… this smells suspicious.
You will find two series of 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective Books
- 绘本 Picture Books
- 读本 Picture Novel
屁屁侦探绘本 Butt Detective Picture Books
These are the 7 titles in the Butt Detective Picture Book Series:
《屁屁侦探.深深山的大雪怪》
《屁屁侦探.消失的人气甜点》
《屁屁侦探.寻找彩虹钻石》
《屁屁侦探.小局长的大危机》
《屁屁侦探.失踪的便当之谜》
《屁屁侦探.怪盗现身》
《屁屁侦探.真假屁屁侦探》
The picture books are bigger, detailed and absolutely delightful to read. You have mysteries to solve, picture hunts, mazes… so much details go into each page that to truly enjoy these books, you should be scruntinising them. The picture hunts are funnily enough the best part of the books, this involved looking for bums in the pictures! It could be in the sky, the bush, the rock. Anything. It is so wildly imaginative and fun, I guaranteed laughter in the house when you do read it.
You can see from the images below how detailed and fun the books are. There are clues throughout the entire book, and questions readers can deduce and answer.
There are mazes to do, and the best part is finding bums in the picture. Ya, bums down, the favourite part of all the books for my kids are finding the bums….
屁屁侦探读本 Butt Detective Picture Novels
These are the books in the Butt Detective Picture Novels so far, there may be more as they get translated from Japanese to Chines.
《屁屁侦探读本. 咖哩香料事件》
《屁屁侦探读本. 紫衣夫人的暗号事件》
《屁屁侦探读本. 消失在暗夜中的巨人》
《屁屁侦探读本. 黑影窃盗团入侵》
《屁屁侦探读本. 侦探对上怪盗》
《屁屁侦探读本. 来自遗址的求救信》
《屁屁侦探读本. 好景庄有妖怪》
《屁屁侦探读本. 被怪盜盯上的新娘》
《屁屁侦探读本. 幸运猫落到谁手上》
《屁屁侦探读本. 屁屁侦探恋爱了？！》
This series is for more advanced readers and the stories are longer and more complex. While it still retains the element of fun within the pages, it doesn’t have the same childish appeal and silliness of the picture books.
Youtube Readings of the 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective Books
I found a few audio reading of the 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective Books on YouTube. You could watch it with your children before deciding if you would like to purchase them.
I would like to point out here that the fun of these books are really the games/mazes/search pages in the actual books, and not so much the storyline.
《屁屁侦探·消失的人气甜点》
《屁屁侦探·失踪的便当之谜》
《屁屁侦探 真假屁屁侦探》
What we like about the 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective Books
It’s smart and serious but also weird and interesting! I mean it’s a detective with a bum shaped face with a dog as a sidekick solving mysteries and defeating bad guys with the power of his farts. It’s one of those concepts that is so bizarre your first reaction is to frown and reject it completely. However, I’ve tested it out with my own children, and my friends’ children and they REALLY like it!
Ok, I confess that I like searching for the bums in the picture too. It is FUN!
My children liked the books so much, they even did book reports and free drawing of it.
Book reports are a great way to enhance your children’s Chinese skills.
You can get a simple version or an advanced version, in Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese in this blog post.
Where to purchase the 屁屁侦探 Butt Detective Books
We bought the first series from Taobao, and the second series from Maha Yuyi bookstore in Singapore. You can get the Simplified Chinese versions from Taobao and jd.com, Traditional Chinese versions from books.com.tw
I have also spotted it for sale on Amazon.
Recommended for
I find that these books appealed to my youngest as well as my oldest! There is enough details within the book to entice children, and at the same time, a simple mystery story to evoke their thinking and follow the plotline. And of course the bums…My children’s favorite part of the books were searching for the bums in the picture, fighting to see who could find all 10 shouting “屁屁”
Really, I think any young Chinese reader with a good sense of humour would love it.
Happy Reading (and searching for bums)!
