No! That's Wrong!

No! That’s Wrong! by Zhaohua Ji and Cui Xu.

When the wind snatches a pair of red lacy underpants off of a clothes line, a rabbit discovers them.  He immediately decides that the underpants are a hat with perfect holes for his ears.  He then heads through the woods and other animals try on the underpants as a hat.  It isn’t until he meets a donkey who proves that they are underpants and should be worn on the other end that the rabbit wears them correctly, but his tail doesn’t really fit into them and the other animals ask him why he’s wearing a hat that way.  So he returns to his original way of wearing the underpants as a hat.  The endpapers feature animals wearing all sorts of people clothes in unique ways.

How can you go wrong with a book about underpants being worn wrong?!  You can’t!  It is universal child humor, as proven by the Chinese author and illustrator.  One aspect of the book that I love is that there is a grownup, sensible voice at the end of each two-page spread that speaks in vain.  The illustrations are great fun, enhancing the tone of the words.  In fact, I dare you not to giggle at the crocodile wearing the underpants.

Recommended for reading to only a few children at a time, so that you don’t lose control of a larger group.  Some of the pages have more detailed drawings which will work best for small groups to giggle at.