March Picture book of the month: Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort

[RachelMumsnet]

Our March picture book of the month is the latest book in the wonderful Underpants series, which must boast the most extensive collection of Y-Fronts fiction has ever seen. We've seen Aliens Love Underpants, Dinosaurs Love Underpants and now Pirates.

Pirates Love Underpants follows the pirates as they sail on the pirate ship Black Bloomer past angry crocs, sharks in fancy knickers, and through gurgling swamps, on a quest to find...the fabled Pants of Gold.

Read more about and apply for one of 50 free copies. Then post your reviews on this thread. Everyone who feeds back about the book will be entered into a draw to win one of 10 sets of books from the Underpants series.

[Firewall]

Thank you! I received the parcel with 5 books and my LO loves them!

[worriedmum46]

This book has gone down very well in my house. The humour catches the kids imagination - even my nephew who 'hates books' loves this one! He even had a 'go' at reading it to his little sister.

[DuchessofMalfi]

Our parcel of books arrived this morning. Thank you so much, Mumsnet. My son is thrilled to bits with his books - it's nearly his 4th birthday and he adores the Aliens books :) :) :)

[BornToFolk]

Coming late to this as I only received my book today (thanks to Lara and the publishers for sorting it out!)
Anyway, DS (5) loved it. He's read Aliens love Underpants and really liked it and he loves pirates so I thought it would be a hit. He wanted me to read it to him straight away. He loved the illustations and pointed out things that caught his eye (like the pants on the parrot!) I really enjoyed reading it. Like the other Underpants books, it is silly and funny and rhymes well. DS also had a go at reading some words himself. He's starting to outgrow some picture books but this one was spot on - pants, pirates and great illustrations, what's not to love?!
Thanks for the opportunity to review this.

[moonbells]

I am going to have a seriously happy small boy... many many thanks!

[DuchessofMalfi]

Wow - thank you very much :)

[LaraMumsnet]

Congratulations to our 10 Mumsnetters who have been selected to receive one of 10 sets of books from the Underpants series, Blatherskite, Moonbells, Cindersinsuburbia, Catiinthehat, WowOoo, Knittingnovice, Spirael, Firewall, Majjsu and DuchessofMalfi. We will be contacting you by PM with more details later today.

[Catiinthehat]

We are using this book as a fab tool for potty training our LO. Our son loves the fact he has pirate big boy pants similar to all the ones here. This book has really encouraged him to wear them! As well as the fact it's a bright book with fab pictures and love the story!

[cindersinsuburbia]

My 2 yr old DS loves me reading this to him - although at times I became very tongue tied! The pages are colourful and plenty to look at - a great book from a great series

[Firewall]

We recently received this book as a gift. It's the first one we've had of the series and we are thoroughly enjoying it. The pictures are lovely and bold. We love the way it is written in rhyme. It's a book that has a lot of 'energy'! It's the first pirate book our little one has and has introduced him to the idea of pirates to the stage he is asking to dress up as one!

[moonbells]

We currently have this book on loan from the library! DS (5) thinks it's hilarious. Sharks with knickers on!

What is it with pants? We've also got Queen Victoria's knickers (which is educational for mums too - I am glad not to live in a world that has frilly bloomers!) and we've also borrowed the Aliens one. I guess he'll be looking for dinosaurs next visit... nice one.

[Spirael]

DD (2.5 YO) got this book for Christmas and loves it. In fact she went in to nursery dressed as a pirate for World Book Day and took this book!

It is a requirement that the entire book be read aloud in suitable piratic tones. Yar, me hearties.

[WowOoo]

After having read Aliens and Dinos until I could recite them in my sleep, I knew this latest book would be a winner.

Ds2, who is almost four, absolutely loves it.

It's all there- great pictures with lots to spot and plenty of details so looking doesn't get boring; lovely rhymes that he can repeat and say himself; a variety of scary and not so scary animals; treasure; swords; fierce yet jolly pirates and of course, jokes about pants.

Ds has been looking for a dinosaur in the pages. He thinks because a little alien from the other book pops up, that there should be a dino somewhere. I haven't checked as it's keeping him busy!

[Pozzled]

We were really pleased to get our copy last week. DD1 (4.8) had an initial reaction of 'Oh, not pirates!' which surprised me. She used to be very in to pirates, but recently has been more into fairies (incidently, is there a 'Fairies Love Underpants'? If not, can that be the next one?).

Once I started reading it, though, she really enjoyed it, especially picking out details from the colourful pictures. She loves choosing her favourite pair of pants from the selection inside the covers, and looking at the different pirates. She did get a bit upset at the page with the crocodiles, though, because the telescope was falling in the water and would be lost! She was also very amused by the second group of pirates falling over their own underpants, the humour is perfect for her age.

DD2 is a little young for it yet (21 months) but even she enjoyed the bright pictures, and was able to select her favourite underpants from the selection!

[Knittingnovice]

DS (4y8m) and DD(3) loved this. The only copy of aliens love underpants we have been able to get our hands on was a dual language one from the library.

They loved the humour, DH was heard chuckling as I read it to them & DS has asked for help sounding out and blending the words like he has been learning in school.

A winner in the Knittingnovice household

[stewaris]

I was on holiday when the book arrived but I saw, and read the book, to my only grandson yesterday. I read it at least half a dozen times before he worked his way around my partner, his dad, his mum and my daughter. He just loved it and I think it will be a favourite for a long time. Thanks so much for the book. I confess I read it before I gave it to him and also read bits out to my partner as well

[MissRee]

PS... I also think DS (7) will enjoy reading this to his little sister!

[MissRee]

What a wonderful book! Sat and read it with DD (14mo) last night before bed and she absolutely loved it. She was pointing to the characters (she especially liked the parrot and the crocodiles) and found it highly amusing when I was doing the "snap snap" for the crocodiles!

I think I'll definitely be investing in some of the other books in the series

[clux73]

Hello
Thanks for sending us this book. My two daughters both absolutely love it. There favourite bit is seeing the dog and cat wearing pants, especially the dogs red fur lined pants! They also like looking at the pants on the inside cover and then checking who is wearing them. We already have Aliens love Underpants so were looking forward to the ending where it tells you to be careful of something, in this case making sure your pants don't fall down in public! Great quick read which I know we'll read a lot.

[Clareperquin]

Alex really loved Pirates Love Underpants. He laughed and laugh about the bit where they visited 'Big Knickers Bay'. Definitely going out to buy the rest of the books in the series.

[Blatherskite]

Our book arrived this morning so once DD got home from Pre school, we sat down to read it.

It's a fun book to read, lots of scope for silly Pirate voices and the pictures have lots of funny details in which DD enjoyed pointing out (she especially loved the parrot in pants and I liked the Alien in Underpants tattoo on the Pirates arm) and I felt like it was just the right length.

As soon as I was finished, DD demanded I read it "again, again, again" so I did. Then she wanted it read "again, again, again" again. I suggested she read it to herself and she had a really good go, remembering a lot of the story very well. For her to have picked up that much after just two readings, it must really have captured her imagination.

I can see this being read again - at least once - at bedtime too. A really lovely book. Definitely in very much the same theme as Alien's love Underpants etc but still a lovely book in it's own right too

[Blatherskite]

DD loved Aliens Love Underpants and she loves Pirates - this should be perfect :)

[hmphybear]

My daughter loves these books (currently just learned to say the word dinosaur - though its more like dinesor, but I think that's awesome for 19mths) and she thinks its funny that dinosaurs wear pants and that is her favourite book at the moment, so looking forward to getting the others in the series so that she can learn the word Pirate! ;)

[AcademicOwl]

DS has enjoyed the hard-board aliens books since he was tiny (about a year old!). Loves the pictures, loves the rhyming story. He's now 2 and a half, so I think pirates may be his next new best thing!

[JammySplodger]

Great! We love granny's spotted bloomers, will look out for the Pirates one too.