My Underpants Rule! has been written by an ex-police officer and her husband to help parents to keep their children safer from sexual predators. Children are very innocent and accepting and therefore it is vital for parents to sit with their children and talk to them about what is and what isn’t allowed when it comes to our bodies. Many parents may struggle with knowing how to start this conversation and some may be worried that it will cause fear and upset for the child to discuss these things. This book is an idea starting tool for this conversation.
My Underpants Rule! is aimed at children aged 4-8 but can obviously be used at any age and is very appealing to children at first sight. The front cover is bright, bold and comical and it shows a girl and boy both dressed as superheroes. Both my children liked the cover and enjoyed looking at the pants and pretending to be their own superheroes. However, I found some of the image slightly blurry, especially the eyes of the children. I also found that on a few of the inside pages that the words and images were slightly blurry but it did not bother my children.
The first page in the book is designed for the adult to read prior to sharing the book with their child. It explains the aims of the book and gives ideas for how to use this book. It offers advice such as make the reading fun, encourages your child to repeat after you and explains that repetition is vital in helping young children to learn and retain information.
The book begins with a few pages that my children found rather funny as they mention the wide variety of names for what can be found under our underpants and how they make funny noises. This prompted a discussion with my older son about the difference between girls and boys and why people make up funny names for their parts.
The book then teaches you an Underpants Rule rhyme. The type-size used is good and children can easily follow along with their finger as you read, the important words in the rhyme are also written in bright colours to encourage your child to read aloud or shout out at the right times. My son is able to read and so we spent time reading these pages over and over again and saying a few words each and then swapping over. At times we found the rhyme didn’t scan perfectly and we found it quite hard to actually get it to rhyme but this does not affect the message that the book is trying to teach.
Next in the book come a few questions about the Underpants Rule! rhyme that help and encourage you to talk more about the rhyme and ensure that your child understand the rule. It also covers what to do if someone accidentally touches or sees you naked.
This book is definitely a good tool to help parents teach their children about the Underpants Rule and can be used easily to aid discussion about what is and what isn’t appropriate. I would recommend it to parents to use a starting point if they are struggling with knowing where to start with this difficult subject.
My Underpants rule is available for £6.99, or you can have the book personalised from U Star Novels for £7.99
