George Brown, Class Clown 7 – Attack of the Tighty Whities!

Nancy Krulik's Attack of the Tighty Whities is a burpy, giggly school story for 6 year olds about a boy who can spell almost anything but can't control his own belly.

What happens

This is the seventh George Brown, Class Clown book. George has just won his school's spelling bee, so next week he's off to the county-wide one. His mum is SO proud that she drags him shopping for a bow tie, red suspenders and some new underpants (you can probably guess where this is going).

The trouble is George's magic super burp. Ever since a wish on a shooting star only half came true, a huge burp can bubble up at any moment and take charge of his arms, legs and mouth. It's the burp that goes wild, but George always gets the blame.

So Alex, his best mate, gets to work on a cure. First up is a vanilla ice cream and onion milkshake. Would your reader drink that to stop a burp? George does, and his breath is so bad that his mum makes him stick his head out of the car window.

Then there's Louie, George's rival, who's quite sure George will mess up. He turns up at the department store just as George steps out looking like his mum's eighty-three-year-old uncle. And he'll be sitting in the audience at the bee, too.

The burps keep escaping at the worst moments. A shop mannequin loses both its arms. A mini golf course gets a bleating billy goat. And school's Backward Day gives George a brand new worry about which end the next burp might come out of!

It's properly silly and very gross in places, with boogers, stinky armpits and a bee sting somewhere very tender. There's lots of spelling fun woven through it as well. George spells things out as he goes, so a bad moment becomes a N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E.

If you've got a reader who laughs hardest at burps and wedgies, this is right up their street. It's also lovely for a child who's secretly quite proud of being good at something, because George really is a brilliant speller underneath all the chaos.

What to read next

If it goes down well, George's next adventure takes him camping with the Beaver Scouts in Hey! Who Stole the Toilet?