Close reading of children's literature

A Close Reading of ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman



This is a 22 page long picture book aimed at Key Stage 0 children of approximately 1 – 4 years old and intended to be read by an adult to a child, although over time with practice the book could be easily learned and read back to the adult by the child. It contains 256 words and is a hardback, containing 12 double page spreads and illustrated in full colour with cartoon like pictures to illustrate each double page spread.

This book is set in two main locations, one being in space or on board a spaceship, the other being on earth in various settings such as a garden and a bedroom. The story is a simple one in that Aliens have an interest in human underpants and want all shapes and sizes for their personal collections. The story begins with the explanation that, as the title suggests, Aliens love underpants but that there are no underpants in space. This means that they must visit earth on a regular basis to steal underpants from washing lines and bedroom drawers in order to add to their collection. It is suggested that the reader will be surprised to learn that Aliens do not come to earth to meet humans at all, only to find more underpants. The climax and message to children in this story is that when a child next dresses themselves they must be careful to check inside their freshly washed and clean underpants to be certain that no Aliens are lurking unseen inside.

There is no repetition within the story although it is still memorable for a child due to the content feeling slightly taboo with the subject matter being underwear. Not a topic of conversation usually encouraged within the home or socially but one that gives an element of naughty humour. Making a child laugh with a slightly rude sounding subject is a key strategy for helping them to remember the story.

The story is told with the use of rhyming couplets which not only makes it a fast moving pace which will keep a child’s interest but also makes learning fun as the rhymes are easy to remember and add to the naughty humour running throughout this book.  Reading can sometimes been seen as a chore by small children (and the adult reading to them) and this fun element is useful in getting a child’s attention and helping them to stay focused and engage with the story.

The use of language in Aliens Love Underpants is creative yet simple relying on humour and language which would be used by slightly older children making it easy for the intended key stage to understand. Freedman uses one, two and three syllable words on each page and for each couplet to create a simple rhyme for each double page spread. The words are printed onto the left hand page and the illustration by Cort is on both pages of each double spread giving the impression of the alien or human world being created around the story. It would be possible to look at the pictures and work out a very similar story from these illustrations alone. For example on pages 7 and 8 we see an illustration of aliens leaving their spaceship on a lawn in front of a house. Three are standing next to the washing line and one is dancing on top of the line of pants with a hand over his face giving a mischievous expression. The words used ‘They land in your back garden, though they haven’t been invited. Oooooh, UNDERPANTS! They chant, and dance around delighted' (p7) describe the scene in a simple manner but would not be needed to ensure understanding of what the child can see in front of them. This is the case for the majority of the book. Words are used to enable the adult to read the book as pictures are hard to read but the child does not need them to understand what is happening. This is a common feature in picture books for this key stage. As Reynolds suggests in Modern Children’s literature – an introduction ‘some picture books form a composite text, with words and pictures sharing the telling. Others retain a written text that is self-sufficient and use the illustrated text to add extra effects’ (p221).

The illustrations by Ben Cort are almost more important than the words in gaining a child’s attention and are put to great use in this book. They are bright and colourful with a cartoon like style representing each alien as a character with an individual personality. There are naughty aliens with their hands over their mouths suggestive of secrets and mischievous behaviour at work. There are child aliens and alien pets in the illustrations showing their home planet and adult aliens sitting reading newspapers in a world that is similar to the world the child reader is familiar with as it mirrors their own. This similarity again engages the child as although it feels familiar clearly it is not as children will not have seen a world of so much colour or containing aliens. However this element of fantasy appeals to children as their imaginations are developing and at this age it is still quite possible in a child’s mind that aliens exist and in this case why would they not visit earth or indeed like underpants?

The narrative reinforces this use of fantasy as the story is told in present tense with the exception of the final double page spread being future tense. There is the suggestion that currently aliens are stealing your underpants from under your very nose and in future when putting your pants on ‘just check in case an alien still lurks inside unseen’ (p23).

The front cover of the book has the title in silver which shines and makes this book eye catching on a shelf however the story itself is written in black text overlaid onto the illustration at the top of the left hand page which again gives the impression of the words being a part of this strange colourful world in which the aliens live and later in the story a part of the earth rather than separate. The words are always placed here to ensure the child knows exactly where to look when the page is turned. In various children’s books I have found this text placement to be the same, for example the Mr Men series and Waybuloo – Find the Piplings. The placement of words and integration of the words and pictures works well but either can be used separately to tell a very similar story as explained previously. They are able to stand alone from each other. The two used together reinforce the story as much as the rhyming scheme and the slightly taboo subject matter meaning that when all of these elements are combined the overall effect is one of a highly developed and humorous fantasy world which can be enjoyed by children and adults. It is equally as important to engage with adult readers as the purchaser of such books and the person most likely to read to a child in school or at home.

In Mr Tickle by Roger Hargreaves it can been seen once more than we have a story which can be read without the use of the pictures but the amount of text in this book would be less likely to interest a child and although they could be taken out of the book and the story would still work the words are more complex and there is no use of rhyme ‘Mr Tickle was fast asleep. He was having a dream’ (p3). The pictures are used to engage the child as they listen to the story but once more the pictures do stand alone and could be taken out of context to tell a very similar story. You could not have the same interaction between adult and child with the story in this book in the way you can with Aliens Love Underpants. As Melrose suggests in his study of children’s literature for this age group picture books give an opportunity for children and adults to interact with each other ‘The child is nurtured by the parent and the book is the mediator. This relationship helps develop the child's cognitive understanding (Melrose p93-7). In relation to Mr Tickle and it being less effective without its use of pictures it could be said that the pictures do not always represent exactly what is being said in the text. Although the picture shows that Mr Tickle is asleep it does not show that he is having a dream in any way. The text is required to discover this information. In this case ‘the words in picture books always tell us that things are not merely as they appear in the pictures (Hunt p79).

Clearly there are various ways in which to appeal to Key stage 0 and upwards and in the two books discussed we can see two different ways in which to engage with the reader.























Bibliography

Freedman, C. (2007). Aliens Love Underpants. London: Simon and Schuster UK Ltd.

Hargreaves, R. (1971). Mr Tickle. London: Egmont UK Limited.

Hunt, P. (1994). An Introduction to Children's Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hunt, P. (1999). Understanding Children’s Literature. Norwich: Routledge.

Melrose, A. (2002). Write for Children. London: Routledge Falmer.

RDF Media. (2010). Waybuloo – Find the Piplings. London: Egmont UK Limited

Reynolds, K. (2005).  Modern children’s literature. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan