We Found a Hat
by Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press, 2016. 52 pages.
Starred Review
A new hat book by Jon Klassen! And first I’ll answer the burning question: No one gets eaten in this book! (Yes, this was something of a disappointment to me.)
However, we do have a creature (a turtle in this case) battling with covetousness over a hat. This time, actually, generosity wins out.
The story is simple. Conveyed with simple words and flat pictures — where so much emotion is conveyed, once again, in those simple eyes.
Two turtles find a hat. It looks good on both of them. (Or so they say. The reader notices that it doesn’t actually fit either turtle very well.)
But there is only one hat and two turtles. They leave the hat behind, but one turtle can’t get it out of his mind.
When the first turtle starts to go to sleep, the second turtle sees his chance.
But the first turtle tells about his dream, a dream where they both have hats and both the hats look good. The second turtle decides to go with the generous dream option.
Now there are some impracticalities with this solution. Will it really satisfy? But one thing I like is that, once again, there’s lots of room for discussion with kids about what actually happened. And how the characters are feeling.
And this time nobody gets eaten.
As before, this contains surprisingly deep simplicity.
A hat book! Like all the rest, it leaves me smiling.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/we_found_a_hat.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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