I see animals in underpants! You can see animals in underpants too, if you pick up a copy of The Underpants Zoo!
Ok ok, enough of my silly rhyming. On to the reviewing.
At The Underpants Zoo by Brian Sendelbach all of the animals wear underpants! Reading the book we take a tour through this silly zoo, and get to see exactly what kind of underpants a zebra, crocodile, or elephant might wear. Written in rhyme, which we all know I love, this was a cute funny book that any child is sure to love. The illustrations were bright and fun and they really popped, perfect for this story and a great way to get young children exited about wearing big girl or big boy underpants. I daresay the children thought it was a lot funnier than most adults would, but it was met with gales of laughter and a lot of excitement. There’s not much more I can say about this title, it wasn’t one of my personal favorites but there again I’m not 5 anymore. The kids absolutely loved it though, so you should definitely listen more to what they thought. 😛
This next book wasn’t a storytime book, yet. The other book we did at storytime with The Underpants Zoo was Giraffes Can’t Dance which I reviewed here earlier. But to follow the theme of underpants related stories, I’ll review for you guys Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman. Another hilarious rhyming homage to the glory of underpants.
In Dinosaurs Love Underpants we learn the real reason why dinosaurs went extinct, they became far too obsessed with wearing underpants. T. Rex starts the trend when, instead of eating the cave men, he decides to take their underpants instead. Once again there isn’t a lot of plot to the story, possibly an underpants story theme, but what it lacks in plot it surely makes up for with fabulous illustrations and great humor. I particularly love the cover illustration, which just cracks me up and fills me with a sense of childhood adventure and fun. 
*Bonus Review*
What is it about underpants that inspires so much childlike humor and infinite silliness? What is it about them that gives even grown-ups the giggle fits? It’s an age old question to which we may never have an answer. What I do know is that there is a whole series of chapter books devoted to underwear humor. Of course I am talking about The Captain Underpants Series by Dav Pilkey.
In The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Harold and George are two fourth grade pranksters who take it a little further than usual by hypnotizing their principal into believing he is an underpants wearing super-hero. Of course they think it’s hilarious until he escapes and starts chasing down bad guys wearing nothing but underwear and a cape. Which is actually more hilarious. The series follows the antics of these boys and Captain Underpants, their erstwhile principal. While it will definitely not be to everyone’s taste (mine for example) the books are indeed funny and very appealing to children of a certain age and taste. I wasn’t of an age or taste, probably ever, to appreciate them. In fact I really really disliked them. BUT I can see the appeal to kids.
If it gets them to read, I’m all for it. Unfortunately this is one of the books that often suffers censorship from parents because of the “dumb”, “stupid”, or “gross” humor and because it does nothing to broaden a child’s mind. That said, let me ask does Nora Roberts broaden yours? If your kid wants to read, no matter what it is, please encourage it. As Pilkey states on his site, this may be too silly for grown-ups and you should probably get a child’s permission before reading. 
crookedpage 