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

Oh my...Kane/Miller has brought us a delightful book from China!

A pair of ruffly red underpants blows off a clothes line and lands near a little white rabbit who immediately places them on his head. "It's a hat," he says. The text at bottom corrects him, "No, that's wrong. It's not a hat." But the rabbit doesn't seem to listen and goes about placing the underpants on the heads of other animals. It takes a donkey to set him straight and let him know he's wearing underpants on his head.

But, if the donkey is right, and they really ARE underpants, where does his tail go?

Along the way, the story introduces a number of adjectives and opposites. For example, the "hat" is too small for an elephant, but too big for a fox, and it's simply amazing, magnificent, incredible...you get the drift.

I really can't think of anything that's much funnier than a bunch of animals with hilarious facial expressions wearing underpants on their heads, and children will laugh out loud at this book and its illustrations. I can just imagine them yelling, "No! That's Wrong," as they turn the pages. Even the back end papers will elicit giggles as readers see a number of animals incorrectly wearing articles of clothing and other objects on their bodies.

If you're looking for a funny book that will make your child (and you) laugh and also introduce some new vocabulary words along the way, this would make an excellent choice.

Release date: March 1, 2008 (available now!)

Stuart Vyse is Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, in New London. In his new book, Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money, he offers a unique psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of our wildly self-destructive spending habits. In the podcast below Vyse talks with Oxford editor Marion Osmun.

Transcript after the jump. (more…)

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Ethan Rarick’s Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West is an intimate portrait of the Donner Party and their unimaginable ordeal in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Of course, what most of us remember about the Donner Party are the gruesome tails of cannibalism. In the interview below with radio host Dorian Devins, Rarick discusses the cannibalism aspect of the story. Hear other Rarick clips here.

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Evan’s post last week, Do I Believe in Ebooks?: Part One, stimulated some interesting conversation in the blogosphere and I hope that Part Two, his bold recommendation, will encourage all of us to reconsider the potential of ebooks. I will be at the Tools of Change conference today and I hope some of my fellow attendees will share their opinions with me both in person and in the comments section below.

By Evan Schnittman

In my last posting I promised to delve into my vision of the evolution of ebooks and in doing so offer a dramatic proposal to make them more mainstream and more widely used. I propose that an ebook license be granted as part of the purchase price to anyone who buys a new print book. Yes, you read correctly; the ebook is free with a new print book purchase. (more…)

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Ethan Rarick’s Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West is an intimate portrait of the Donner Party and their unimaginable ordeal in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Rarick, in researching his book, decided to retrace as much of the Donner’s trip as he could. In the interview below with radio host Dorian Devins,  Rarick discusses his journey. Hear other Rarick clips here.

Transcript after the jump. (more…)

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Sherman Alexie's outstanding YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was nominated for a National Book Award in the category, Young People's Literature. The finalist list was released on Wednesday.

In that category, Louise Erdrich's Birchbark House was nominated in 1999.

I think the winner will be announced mid November...

Visit Alexie's website for reviews and info, and a link to an mp3 audio excerpt of the book. Yes, he is the reader of the audio book.

The photo I uploaded is from the press page of his website. Curious... the photo on the publisher's website is a reverse image of the same photo!

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After we finished the Off-Beats Valentines special in 1999, Curious Pictures produced a mock album for the crew. It featured all kinds of music clips from the special, including: The Off-Beats theme. The haunting music as August's dog, September, tells the tale of February, the cat he loved and the war that tore them apart. And my favorite bit, a (purposefully) terrible love song that

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I have something really exciting for you today, a podcast that gives a unique look into an art form we don’t often get to explore on the OUPblog, film. James Monaco author of How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, Multimedia: Language, History, Theory got the chance to interview Laurent Tirard, writer and director of Moliere, a new film about the famous playwright. To read some plays by Moliere check out The Misanthrope, Tartuffe and Other Plays or Don Juan and Other Plays. To listen click the “play” button below. The full text of the interview is after the break.

(more…)

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I'm on my way to DC and Shenandoah for some conventions, speaking and color commentary. I'll see you there, or on the flip side. Until then, check out this very nice review of Today I Will Fly! from the guys at Just One More Book.

Rebecca OUP-US

We have a really special treat for you today. Recently, Holly George-Warren author of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry interviewed Jacqueline Autry. Ms. Autry, the second wife of Gene Autry, currently serves as Director and Chairman of the Board of the Autry National Center, the governing body for the Museum of the American West, Southwest Museum of the American Indian, and the Institute for the Study of the American West. The transcript is after the break. Click to play the Gene Autry podcast.

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Listen to Barbara Mujica as she discusses SISTER TERESA, her compelling novel illuminating the life of one of the most beloved and most controversial of all the saints. Told from the point of view of Saint Teresa's doting companion Sister Angelica, SISTER TERESA unveils the life of a complicated and devoted servant of the Lord. Mujica brings out the woman behind the legend capturing all the fervor of the saint herself. Recorded May 10 at the National Press Club.

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Good afternoon. What have you got on tonight? Some telly? A nice warming supper?

Try something different - join us at Listen with Penguin tonight at 9pm, and polish your ears for a good entertaining. Every night for two weeks, harken to our delightful reader Amber Sealey as she trips her way into the wonderful womanizing McCultural world of Blue van Meer, heroine of Special Topics in Calamity Physics. What's more, you can download each nightly episode to have at the touch of a button, wherever you might be - car, golf course, bed, bath, etc. Enjoy!

Sam the Junior Copywriter

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Well, BEA is over for me. I had a great/exhausting time speaking, signing, running around, seeing friends and getting to know a bunch of new authors and illustrators. (I even managed to snag an amazing David Small illustration at the ABC auction!) I’ll give a report next week, but I thought I’d show you a quick comic from Publisher’s Weekly, uh, weekly children’s book news blast: Whenever

As is the case with all Weston Woods productions, the animated version of Knuffle Bunny has also been release in audio. There's a review of the audio here, and (even better) an extended audio cut of Trixie and her Daddy preparing to read. Enjoy! (oh, and for those of you who are curious, there are plans to make a cartoon of this fall's upcoming Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity)