Vegetables in Underwear
by Jared Chapman; 
illus. by the author
Preschool   Abrams Appleseed/Abrams   32 pp.
4/15   978-1-4197-1464-1   $14.95

Vegetables are usually not funny. Underpants often are. Vegetables in underwear? Guaranteed preschool hilarity. A head of broccoli gets things started on the copyright and dedication pages with a striptease down to his red skivvies. A similarly stripped-down text follows a parade of produce in bright underthings, demonstrating opposite concepts on each double-page spread. “There’s big underwear and little underwear, / dirty underwear and clean underwear... / underwear for boys and underwear for girls.” Chapman’s colorful characters are comical on their own: wearing nothing but underpants and a smile, the veggies feature black-dot eyes and stick-figure arms and legs. The lively contrast between each vegetable’s rich hue and its vibrantly toned underwear adds energy to the minimalist compositions. Endpapers helpfully provide labels for the whole cast, with everyone fully clothed in the front and sporting only their briefs in the back. This silly overview of undergarments and vegetables winds down with a twist (of the knickers) that kids who’ve recently graduated from diapers will especially relish (“sorry, babies”). Expect second, third, and more helpings of this scantily clad harvest.

From the May/June 2015 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.