50 Underwear Questions: A Bare-All History by Tanya Lloyd Kyi with Illustrations by Ross Kinnaird

Underwear. Most people use it, but how many of us know anything about its history? Underwear didn't always look like what we use today. It's changed a lot over the decades and centuries, and so have ideas about modesty and coverage. Do you have any underwear questions? This bare-all history has all the answers you've been looking for!

Underwear is a topic of perennial fascination to children. It seems a bit naughty, but it's also so common. With a funny, easygoing narrative style mixed with humorous illustrations, this non-fiction title has lots of reader appeal. It charts how underwear went from simple (loincloths) to elaborate (corsets, long johns, petticoats) and back to simple again (thongs), and all of the points in between. It hints at underwear's connections to ideas of politics and gender and talks briefly about the role that economics and climates play, but much of that is glossed over in favour of keeping the timeline moving (a solid directional choice, given the intended audience for the book). For interested readers, a bibliography and a list of titles for further reading might help to explore some of these themes. Annick Press has a number of strong non-fiction titles for curious readers that are well worth checking out.

Check out her website for a glimpse into Tanya Lloyd Kyi's brain. Ross Kinnaird also has a blog where you can see more of his illustration.

I received a review copy from NetGalley courtesy of Annick Press.

Find it at IndieBound. 

Read it with:
50 Burning Questions: A Sizzling History of Fire by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
50 Poisonous Questions: A Book with Bite by Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Bear in Underwear by Todd H. Doodler
The Revealing History of Underwear by Katie Daynes
Underwear: What We Wear Under There by Ruth Freeman Swain