Horrid Henry’s Underpants

Horrid Henry's Underpants by Francesca Simon is a run of short, very silly stories for 6 year olds, and it opens with Henry agreeing to eat vegetables five nights running.

What happens

He's only agreed because of the prize. Gobble and Go, the restaurant where the fries never stop coming and every table has its own telly. He would agree to almost anything for that.

There is one problem. He has no intention of eating a single vegetable.

Day one is string beans. Henry tells Peter there's a spider on his leg and, while Peter is under the table looking for it, flips the whole lot onto Peter's plate. Peter comes back up and is delighted. Lucky me, he says. I thought I'd finished.

Day two is broccoli. It goes on the floor under Peter's chair, bit by bit, until Peter gets told off for making a mess.

Day three is peas, squashed flat under a knife. Henry then offers to clear the table, which his dad finds very touching.

By day five he's posting sprouts into a little drawer in the table. Then comes the trip to the restaurant, which is better left unspoiled.

The second story is where the title comes from. Henry's Great-Aunt Greta has sent a late birthday present. It is light and thin, so obviously it's money.

It is pink frilly pants covered in glittery hearts, and a card that begins Dear Henny.

He bins them. Then his friend Ralph turns up, so he panics and stuffs them in his drawer instead. Then he oversleeps, grabs a pair in the dark and runs to school. He's halfway through a long division lesson before he starts to wonder why his pants feel so tight.

Children adore this stuff, and it's easy to read aloud because the days are numbered and there's a lot of Plip Plop and Squish Squash.

The best bits are inside Henry's head. He works out his battle plan against the greens like a general. He imagines his parents sobbing over his vegetable-poisoned body, and his only regret is that he'll be too dead to say told you so.

One thing to weigh up. This is essentially a step by step guide to not eating your dinner, and it's a good one. If you're currently at war over broccoli, your child will pick up several new ideas.

The underpants joke also rests entirely on frilly pink pants being the most humiliating thing that could happen to a boy, and Great-Aunt Greta keeps thinking he's a girl. It's affectionate rather than nasty, but it's a very old joke and some households will have had enough of it.

What to read next

If they want more of Henry, there's Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire. Peter reads out one of his own stories at dinner, about butterfly fairies, and Henry's reaction to that is worth the trip on its own.