Growing a Reader: Kids' Books, Tips and More

It’s important to show young readers that reading can be a lot of fun. Children will show more interest in reading when they see that books are fun. When interest in reading grows, reading skills will improve through increased exposure and practice.

Is there anything sillier and more fun to emerging readers than underwear? I first realized how fascinated young readers were with underwear when reading Froggy Gets Dressed. This book tells the story of a young frog who goes out to play in the snow and is repeatedly called back by his mother because he forgot to wear an item of clothing. I’m sure you can guess the item that he forgot to wear from the subject of this blog. What I didn’t anticipate was the extent to which children found this underwear-less frog amusing. I used this experience to track down all the underwear storybooks I could find – here are my favourites:

Underpants Zoo

Welcome to the Underpants Zoo, where rhyming text will introduce you to many different animals, each sporting underpants that suit their personal styles.

Vegetables in Underwear

In my experience, this one doesn’t work as well in storytimes; but what it lacks in narrative depth it surely makes up for with off-the-wall pictures of veggies in their unmentionables.

Animal Pants

Another book with rhyming text that introduces you to a wider variety of underpants. From boxers, to bloomers, to long johns: each animal has their preference. Kids get the vote for their favourite pair at the end of the story.

Froggy Gets Dressed

Johnathan London’s Froggy series is great for shared reading time with your child. As mentioned above, this story will have your child laughing at froggy’s forgetfulness

Aliens Love Underpants

There aren't any underpants in space, according to author Claire Freedman, and this may help solve the mystery of why aliens are so fascinated with visiting earth. Freedman’s rhyming text is beautifully illustrated by Ben Cort.

Brief Thief

This one works well with a slightly older crowd (I read it for a Second Grade class and they loved it). A lizard takes liberty with some old underpants after he runs out of toilet paper; a watchful rabbit has some thoughts about the lizard's actions.