It’s book fair season and one of the books your kids are sure to be drawn towards is Underwear! from Disney Hyperion, with soft covered licensed versions available through Scholastic Book Fairs. Before you quickly dismiss it based on the title, I encourage you to take a closer look. Underwear! by Jenn Harney is adorable and charming, about a parent trying to wrangle a defiant child.
In this case, the father and son are bears and the cub is about to get out of the tub after his nighttime bath. His dad asks him to put on his underwear and the little bear makes up every excuse imaginable to not put it on the right away, including modeling it in a variety of silly ways and using his big imagination to turn it into other things. This little bear has a serious case of the sillies!
Author and Illustrator Jenn Harney has a lot of fun with the topic. The text has some wordplay, including the infamous “Under where?” response to the word “Underwear.” But the real humor comes from the illustrations. She conveys so much with the pose of each character, the book almost reads like storyboards to an animated film.
You should never judge a book by its cover and the cover of Underwear! looks like something that only the kids will enjoy. I can attest to that not being the case, with enough humor and charm for parents to have fun along with their little ones when reading it. Whether you’re shopping a book fair, book store, or online, know that Underwear! is guaranteed to make storytime more fun for all involved.