Polar Bear's Underwear (edició 2015)

I bought this book for my nibling's third birthday. She has recently potty trained and I figured a book with colorful animal illustrations and underpants silliness is developmentally appropriate, and she'll be able to grow into the text itself.

Honestly, I'm pretty fond of the book myself and may buy additional copies for other niblings as they get older. The inclusion of a red die-cut underwear-shaped box for the outside of the book is really clever, though I have no idea how it's going to stand up to toddler/pre-school motor skills.

The illustrations are all collages on brown kraft paper and are very colorful. They're not super inventive - when Polar Bear is looking for his underwear and finds a striped pair, of course they belong to a zebra, and the pair with a cupcake and candy print belongs to a pig - but that doesn't matter so much for little kids. I love that the preview pages for each animal/underpants reveal is a diecut window, encouraging guessing and pattern matching. And, of course, Polar Bear's underpants are white - and he's been wearing them all along, which is another fun element I didn't pick up on until the very end, although in retrospect if I had just looked closely, I would have noticed!

I described the book to my sister-in-law as an underpants-themed "Are you my mother?", and I think that's probably the best summary. But the art is fun and the underpants silliness would appeal to any little kids I've ever known. No wonder it has been translated to so many languages! ( )

Very silly and entertaining for young children! This is great to get big laughs from small kids. There are cut outs in this book which make it very hands on and great for hands on activities in the classroom. ( )

On peut difficilement être plus explicite ! Sur la couverture, perplexe, un ours au regard interrogatif. C’est simple, très efficace et très drôle. Ainsi le gros chat griffu s’honore d’une culotte avec des petites souris. La pieuvre aux bras multiples a revêtu une culotte à trous. Celle à carottes, c’est la culotte chapeau du lapin… Et la culotte d’ours blanc ? Peut-être crève-t-elle les yeux… ?

L’écriture, précise et riche sans être obscure permet la théâtralisation des saynètes. Les petits, et les lecteurs adultes, auront plaisir à mettre en bouche ces mots, nouveaux ou non. Les illustrations installent une atmosphère japonaise grâce au portrait d’ours blanc avec ses oreilles de panda et ses gros yeux. Sur le thème fréquent de la quête de l’objet perdu, les auteurs Tupera Tupera, duo de créateurs, inventent un duo de personnages qui a tout pour nous séduire. Un vrai bonheur de lecture pour tout petits.

Dès 5 ans ( )

Silly and certain to get big laughs. ( )

Underwear? Really? I wasn't sure at first about this one but it really grew on me and the little ones loved it. So goofy and fun.

The story is about Polar Bear and how he's lost his undies. Perplexed, he and his good friend Mouse begin a search.

What you get are big bright pages in sets. The first page of the set has Mouse and Polar Bear talking about whether what they spy on the next page could be PB's underwear. What children see is a page with a cut out and a bright 'mystery' pattern. One pattern, for example, has different kinds of food; while another has 'I Love Mice'. When you turn the page you get to see who it is.

I particularly like the itty-bitty cutout but kids will have their own favorites.

Besides the fun you can use this book to teach about patterns and to name animals like Pig, Mouse, Cat, Zebra....

A delightful and sturdy book made with thick paper.

~review copy