PreS-Gr 2-In this comical story, a likable rabbit has a humorous encounter with a pair of red underpants. Rabbit's not sure how to wear the mysterious garment and tries it on as a hat. He offers the hat in turn to eight different animals until a donkey straightforwardly inquires why the rabbit is wearing underpants on his head. Rabbit tries to wear the red apparel properly but finds that his tail gets in the way. Opening endpapers usher in the outdoor setting while the closing ones illustrate the forest animals wearing clothing in a fun variety of ways. Rooftops and boats in the early illustrations place the story somewhere in Asia. The cartoon-style artwork and the text, consisting primarily of dialogue, work well together. Most of the artwork is encased in black outline with text printed both inside and outside the borders. This entertaining picture book stimulates a bit of creative thinking and problem solving. It would be best used one-on-one since details in the illustrations are small. Pair this selection with Shiego Watanabe's How Do I Put It On? (Philomel, 1980).-Lynn K. Vanca, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Richfield, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

On the title page, a pair of red underpants hangs on a clothesline. The book's first (wordless) double-page spread shows the wind blowing the undies away. A rabbit, mistaking them for a hat, shows off the new accessory while an off-stage narrator reminds readers, "It's not a hat." The funny premise stays strong until it runs out of steam at the end. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

A lighthearted duel between Creativity and the Voice of Reason centers on a pair of lacy red panties blown off a clothesline. Deciding that it's a hat, Rabbit lets an array of agreeable animal friends try it on, even as a repeated demurral (see title) runs in counterpoint along the bottom margin. The unseen nabob of negativity appears at last--a scruffy-looking donkey bearing an album of pictures (of, oddly, men in briefs) for proof. Downcast, Rabbit puts the panties on "properly," but being as there's no hole for a tail, and that all the other animals declare that it looks silly, the garment is soon back on Rabbit's head. In the end, Rabbit even goes a step further, prying up the lower border of the penultimate picture so that the saturated colors of the cartoon-style woodland setting can symbolically flow down into the uncolored region of cold rationality. Pair this all-dialogue outing with Jan Brett's The Hat (1997), in which a more developed story line carries similar play with unconventional headgear. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.