Creepy Pair of Underwear!
Written by Aaron Reynolds, Illustrated by Peter Brown
Publisher’s Summary:
Jasper Rabbit is NOT a little bunny anymore. He’s not afraid of the dark, and he’s definitely not afraid of something as silly as underwear. But when the lights go out, suddenly his new big rabbit underwear glows in the dark. A ghoulish, greenish glow. If Jasper didn’t know any better he’d say his undies were a little, well, creepy. Jasper’s not scared obviously, he’s just done with creepy underwear. But after trying everything to get rid of them, they keep coming back!
Primary Source Pairing:
You’ve heard of rose-colored glasses, where you look to see the best things in the world and take the optimistic view of the situation? For this primary source pairing, invite students to put on their green-colored glasses and do an analysis of the use of color in the book Creepy Pair of Underwear! The black and white illustrations with hues of greens speak to the spookiness of the story and the fact that these underwear are following Jasper Rabbit. Pair this book with Creepy Carrots, the other spooky collaboration between Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown, where orange is the color that makes the carrots creepy to do a full color analysis.
When creating the illustrations, Peter Brown used black and white horror movies as his inspiration. He included the shadows and unique visual angles in his illustrations to set the scene for a spooky story. Check out the primary source pairing page for Creepy Carrots where Peter Brown talks about this inspiration and his illustration process: https://primarysourcepairings.com/creepy-carrots/
Questions for Discussion:
- Describe what you see.
- What do you notice first?
- What people and objects are shown?
- Consider the color scheme of the book.
- How do the colors make you feel?
- How does the black, white, and green theme contribute to the theme of the story?
- How would different colors or more colors impact the story?
- What connections can you make between Peter Brown’s examples for inspiration for the illustrations to what you see in the book?
- How does understanding Peter Brown’s inspiration for the illustrations impact your experience reading the book Creepy Pair of Underwear?
Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
A two-page spread of Creepy Pair of Underwear!: Simon & Schuster
Creepy Carrots Primary Source Pairings page: https://primarysourcepairings.com/creepy-carrots/
Primary Source Pairings 