Time for a Brief-ing! One Big Pair of Underwear by Laura Gehl and Tom Lichtenheld

ONE BIG PAIR OF UNDERWEAR.

TWO LITTLE BROWN BEARS WHO HATE TO SHARE.

ONE BEAR WEARS THE UNDERWEAR.

ONE BEAR CRIES, "THIS ISN'T FAIR!"

Right away you can see where this one is going.

In Laura Gehl's new One Big Pair of Underwear (Beach Lane Books, 2014), the author's silly verses set forth the situation: somebody's sure to get shorted when the supply of briefs is tight in the whitie department!

And they're not the only ones. While Gehl is counting up the critters, each batch is one short of a match!

There are three yaks with backpacks, but only two sacks of snacks. Alack!

With only three scooters painted teal and four pale seals ready to ride, one seal has to steal a set of wheels.

It only gets worse as the count goes up:

SEVEN JET SKIS, SHINY BLUE.

EIGHT COWS CRAVE SOMETHING NEW.

SEVEN COWS CALL "MOO-HOO-HOO!"

ONE HOT COW STEWS: "MOO-BOO-HOO!"

And the shortage persists as the numbers grow.

Ten baboons battle over nine trombones. Nine get in line and sound so fine:

NINE BABOONS MARCH WITH THE BAND.

ONE BABOON GETS LESS THAN PLANNED.

One baboon stuck with only a triangle to ting is a sad thing! But... wait! A solution is in sight!

Twenty pink pigs wanting a playground slide are stuck with only ten slides to ride. Now what?

It's pigs to the rescue! Piggyback is the only way to go, and the rest of the crew take their cue from the pigs' two-by-two. Even the little bears figure out how to double up in those tightie whities, and with that plug for sharing, all's well that ends well.

With the certified silly illustrations of Tom Lichtenheld, who did the best-selling artistic honors for Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, Shark vs. Train, and Everything I Know About Pirates. and newcomer Laura Gehl's quirky couplets to do the counting up, the end product is a rib-tickling Seussian-style story-in-rhyme that kids will care to share again and again. You can count on it.