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This Is Not My HatJon Klassen
This Is Not My Hat
by Jon Klassen
A small fish steals a hat from a big fish and explains, calmly, all the reasons he will not be caught.
A story about animals, funny and wry in tone. We would put it with children of 3–6, and at a reading age of about 5 for reading alone.
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Our take on this book
A tiny fish has stolen a hat from a great big sleeping fish and swims off through the weeds, calmly and confidently explaining to the reader all the reasons he is certain to get away with it — while the pictures, just as calmly, show the big fish waking up and following. Jon Klassen's Caldecott-winning picture book is a masterclass in dry comedy and dramatic irony: the words say one thing, the eyes of the fish say another, and the child reader is let in on a secret the narrator does not know he has given away. The ending is discreet — the little fish's fate is left just off the page — which children find thrillingly ominous rather than upsetting. For a three- to six-year-old it is deliciously funny and clever, a book that trusts a young reader to read the pictures against the words, and it repays a second telling once they know how it ends.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
I Want My Hat BackJon Klassen
Rosie's WalkPat Hutchins
The Great Paper CaperOliver Jeffers
This Moose Belongs to MeOliver Jeffers
ElmerDavid McKee
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.