The Hat

The Hat

Written and Illustrated by: Jan Brett

Age Group: 2nd Grade

Published: 1997

The book The Hat is about a little girl who is preparing for the winter and snow ahead of her, so she is getting all her warm clothes out and ready to hang outside for fresh air, a strong wind came and blew all of them around and off the line. A little hedgehog found a stocking that he was curious about, he put his head in it and it got stuck on his prickles. Throughout the day little Hedgie was being asked by all his friends in the forest what he had on  his head, he was embarrassed so acted like it was suppose to be there and he replied a hat to get ready for winter and the cold. The little girl finally ran after Hedgie with her stocking and got it back, during that time all the other animals found clothing items of the girls and put them on to get ready for winter.

The learning lessons in this book are not as obvious as most children's books. In this book little Hedgie is ashamed to ask for help when he got the stocking stuck on his head. Children need to learn and understand that you don't need to be afraid to ask for help from your friends, family and people around you. Little Hedgie was also being defensive and rude to some of his friends, which is not the way you treat them. The same goes for the friends in the forest, instead of helping their friend they just decided to laugh at him, which is not the way you treat your friends either. 

The pictures in this book are really interesting to me. Besides the fact that the pictures are sketched and look very alive, aach page has a main picture in the middle, but then on the sides it has descriptions describing what is happening or will be happening on the next page. On one of the sides it shows what the little girl is doing at the time that little Hedgie is talking to his friends, and how she is going about her daily routine. On the opposite side, it has a picture of the animal friend that little Hedgie will be talking to on the next page. These pictures are foreshadowing the book and helping children understand that concept of what is to come. Along the top of the page is the items of clothing along the stocking line hanging outside. 

I would read this book in my classroom. I think that this story is very cute, with wonderful pictures. The way the friends in the story interact with each other would be a great concept to bring up and talk about. Children love animals and talking about them, and the animals in this story take on people roles and act like humans with talking and having conversations. I would definitely read this book around winter and talk to the children about wearing warm clothes in the winter (ie. hats, gloves, etc.). All in all, I really enjoyed this book.