• Dance! Dance! Underpants!
• written and illustrated by Bob Shea
• published by Disney Hyperion (2016)
• Roar Score: 4/5

Ballet Cat is a relatively new character series that took us by surprise. We picked up last year’s The Totally Secret Secret, which was the first book, and loved it. In the first book, the overenthusiastic Ballet Cat works through a difficulty with Sparkles the Pony, who doesn’t exactly share Ballet Cat’s love of ballet.

In this newest book, she works through a somewhat similar difficulty with Butter Bear, who is slightly embarrassed and doesn’t want to do super-high leaps. She’s also incredibly resourceful when it comes to stalling tactics. Butter Bear does everything in her power to delay the inevitable.

But Ballet Cat is very insistent, which seems to be her dominant character trait. She loves ballet, and she is very insistent that everyone else loves ballet just as much as she does.

This doesn’t always go as planned.

The reason Butter Bear doesn’t want to do super-high leaps? [spoiler alert] She’s afraid everyone will see her underpants and laugh at her. Are her concerns justified? Absolutely. In fact, there’s a group of friends having a picnic nearby with the sole purpose of seeing her underpants. So you can understand her hesitation.

Still, Ballet Cat is – as I said – very insistent.

The silliness in these books is contagious and actually makes me laugh as I read them aloud. They’re also very reminiscent of the Elephant and Piggie books. So if you’re a fan of those Mo Willems books, then it’s very likely that you’ll enjoy Ballet Cat. The humor comes from the same place, they share an underlying message of friendship, they stress the important of being true to yourself, and they’re both quirky and carefree.

It’s safe to say that we’re Ballet Cat fans in this house, and we’re excited to see who else she can “convince” to join her in her love of ballet. Definitely give Dance! Dance! Underpants! a place on your bookshelf, whether you have a ballet fan or not.

(Disclosure: Disney Hyperion provided me with a review copy of this book. All opinions remain my own.)