<em>One of the reasons I love Samantha Jo is that she is the type of friend for whom I have to create a new category in this blog. (That category, by the way, is "potty humor" -- yep!)</em>

<em>Samantha Jo is a proud Chicagoan and blogs at <a href="http://campenette.com/">Campenette</a> and is hilarious on <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/samanthajcampen">Twitter</a>.</em>

<em>Here she graciously shares some awesome boy-approved books (approved by the all-mighty Theo) including one called The Butt Book -- hence the new "potty humor" category.</em>

<em>Thanks so much, Theo and Sam!  </em>

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My son is 3.5 and has always loved books. Hooray! When he was younger it was easy--we just read him things we thought he'd enjoy and on topics we wanted him exposed to. Now? He has opinions. And preferences. Oh does he have preferences. So while this isn't The Most Difficult Thing In All The Land, at times it does create a bit of a challenge given his latest interests: pirates and dinosaurs.

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Pirates are his current passion and I had a hard time finding pirate books that weren't scary and full of fighting. Enter two books the whole family loves to pieces. We've checked them out three times from the library and I have a hunch he's getting his own copies for Christmas.  <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Henry-Buccaneer-Bunnies-Carolyn-Crimi/dp/0763645400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1318881363&amp;sr=8-1">Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies</a> is a delightful picture book about Henry, a bunny pirate who loves to read and his dad, Barnacle Black Ear, who doesn't understand the need for books. Thanks to Henry's self-education he saves the whole crew when a storm hits, which then makes all the bunny pirates discover their love of reading and learning. The words and terms are fun, there's still lots of fun pirate action, and the overall message is positive.

The second book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Henry-Crazed-Chicken-Pirates-Carolyn/dp/0763649996/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1318881678&amp;sr=8-2">Henry and The Crazed Chicken Pirates</a>, is just as fun and with another positive message towards reading. This time Henry protects the island with his shipmates from a gang of crazed chicken pirates who want to steal all their loot. The illustrations are fabulous and again, the whole family loves these books.

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There are a number of dinosaur books out there and either they are picture/story books or straight-up non-fiction. I wanted something in the middle where Theo could move towards learning more facts about them without it being dry and over his head. He's still only 3.5. So when my mom got him <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Color-Skeleton-Dinosaur-Discovery/dp/0806985917/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1318881953&amp;sr=1-1">Amazing Dinosaur Discovery</a> it was an instant hit. It's a story about a boy going to the museum with his dad, so he made a scrapbook of the dinosaurs he wanted to see with some facts about them. The writing is easy to understand and the pictures are good. But what REALLY blew my son away are the pull-out tabs that make the picture of the dinosaur skeleton turn into a real dinosaur with skin and in it's natural habitat. This really helped Theo grasp the concept of what a skeleton is and what it represents. Highly recommended.

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The latest book that I'm sure ANY boy would love is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Butt-Book-Artie-Bennett/dp/1599903113/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1318882265&amp;sr=1-1">The Butt Book</a>. The name doesn't really leave much to the imagination, as yes, it's a book all about butts. However, it's not offensive, the rhyme is quite catchy, and parts are actually informative. Hey, not everything can be on par with MENSA. It's fun and will probably make you a hero. So yes, I give this two thumbs up.

What books do your boys like? With the holidays coming up I could use some ideas!