Big Girl Panties

December 15, 2012
A festive celebration of a young girl's transition to underwear. "Bye-bye, diapers! / I wear panties! // Happy panties! Snappy panties! / Panties! Panties! Hip hooray! Panties for every single day," says the dark-haired Caucasian heroine, who cavorts through the pages modeling undergarments with colorful prints and patterns. Midway through the book, she claims her "big girl" status and playfully scolds a baby (likely a sibling) and a toy crocodile for even considering wearing panties. On the last page, she calls the panty-wearing reader "a big girl, too!" The flat, pleasing, retro illustrations on slate blue backgrounds echo the text's tone nicely. While this book isn't going to convince girls to make the change without other interventions, parents will appreciate the rhyming, bouncing text's exuberant cheerleading. Here's hoping the boy's version of this brief tale (pun-intended) is not too far away. This is one of a handful of diaper-to-underwear books that is fun to read more than once. (Board book. 18 mos.-4)

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January 1, 2013

PreS-A diaper being thrown into the trash kicks off this upbeat celebration of panties. A pigtailed protagonist skips across the pages. She proclaims the myriad choices that come with being a big girl, from the pictured days of the week set to a pair of frilly pink "Princess panties that sparkle and shine." The bright illustrations, set against a slate blue background, convey the youngster's excitement with a flurry of movement and many proud smiles. She takes a break from dancing and play to inform a baby sibling and a stuffed crocodile that they cannot wear panties, though mommies and grandmas can. At the close of the book the child addresses the listener, who presumably is also in on the fun and thus "a big girl, too!" This will make fine reading for newly minted big girls.-Laura Butler, Mount Laurel Library, NJ

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