Santa's Fireproof Knickers product reviews

I have always been an avid reader from quite a young age, and it seems that I have passed my love of reading down to my three children. At our home we have numerous bookcases overflowing with favourite stories, but we are always keen to find more favourites to add to this already copious number of literary options. Recently the picture books we have been lucky enough to receive from KIWIreviews and Scholastic to review have been donated to the tiny rural school I occasionally teacher aide at, the joy on the children's faces when they see a new book or two appear in their library is delightful.

When I saw Deano Yipadee had released a new book 'Santa's Fireproof Knickers' was advertised I had an inkling that my two youngest would absolutely love this book, I could tell the story would be hilarious, they were obsessed with his series Nee Naw for the longest time! The cover shows a plump Santa climbing up a chimney towards an awaiting animal, with a large sack full of presents, wearing some interesting pants, or rather underpants. As we opened the book and started to read the story together, my thoughts were confirmed almost immediately that in fact this would be an amusing story, as 3 pages in and the boys were already laughing.

We are first introduced to Santa when his special fireproof trousers have unfortunately had a bit of bad luck with Santa's clothes dryer, and thus have shrunk them too small for him to wear as protection while going down chimneys. Wearing his shorts going to the houses in the warmer countries was fine but this was not the case in the colder countries with their fires roaring, however all was not lost as his wife Mrs. Claus came to the rescue by letting him use her delightful frilly knickers instead, covered in pink hearts and all hehe.

The story has been written in a rhyming pattern which is the style my children personally love, I even found myself sing parts of it while we read. There is a song which is available on the internet to stream or download to keep, and it really does bring the story to life, we have listened to it while reading along several times now. The illustrations throughout are eye-catching and keep your attention throughout, and my personal favourite picture was when the reindeer were covering their eyes.

I highly recommend this book to all, especially those with younger children, it is a simple to understand story, with engaging pictures and a fun tune, I look forward to seeing what Deano Yipadee creates next! This book is now off to the school library for many more children to enjoy the story of Santa's Fireproof Knickers.

Miss Five and Mr Four are still at the age where bottoms (along with related words like knickers or farts) are a source of hilarity. A single reference to any of these things is enough to send them into peals of laughter. Author Deano Yipadee is well aware of the effect such mentions have on younger children, and uses them with impunity in his stories. Although Santa's Fireproof Knickers is in theory a book to read at Christmas, it can be enjoyed any time a good laugh is needed.

At the start of the story, Santa discovers that his fireproof trousers have shrunk in the wash! This is a disaster for anyone whose job involves climbing down chimneys where a roaring fire might be in progress. The children were concerned about the possible danger to him; they had never considered what it would be like to descend a chimney above a roaring fire as they live in a house with modern heating sources. Bottoms, of course, are normally covered - which means the skin is more delicate than that on areas that are commonly exposed like hands and faces. A burn there would be particularly painful. Miss Five was sympathetic; she said she hoped he had some bum cream to calm his poor burned rear in case of accident.

They both thought Mrs Claus' frilly fireproof knickers were a very funny substitute, and they thought the consequences of Santa refusing to wear those knickers was equally hilarious. There is a wonderful picture of poor Santa sitting in the snow after scorching the seat of his surfing shorts and no doubt injuring the skin on his bottom as well. The reindeer did not help as they laughed as loudly as the children had when they saw Santa's bare red butt cheeks, and no doubt continued to chuckle as Santa changed into his wife's knickers. Frilly they might be, but at least they were fireproof.

The rhyming text makes the story especially easy to follow. Mr Four was quickly finishing lines and joining in with predictable words like "chimney" and "Pole". Listening to the song online was fun too as the children could follow the story themselves and sing along with the author. Many of the illustrations from the book were also included in the online version, and some were animated as well. The final rhyme was not what the children expected, and just as they thought they had laughed until they could laugh no more, they were off again.

Carla Martell's illustrations are superb with lots of Christmassy reds and smaller splashes of green. Miss Five's favourite was the picture of Santa with the reindeer wearing their bright Christmas decorations, while Mr Four (predictably) loved the reindeer falling about laughing as Santa made his way through the snow with his burned bottom on display.