The Hat

When Lisa leaves her woolen garments on the clothes-line to air out, her fallen stocking is picked up by Hedgie the hedgehog, who becomes entangled in it and can't get it off his head. The other animals are inclined to laugh at our erinaceous hero, but Hedgie insists his inadvertent headgear only makes sense, given the cold weather. Hurt nevertheless by the other animals' ridicule, Hedgie retreats toward his den, eventually running into Lisa, who takes her stocking back and explains to him that animals don't wear clothes. Hedgie has the last laugh, as he watches Lisa run after all the other animals, who, convinced by his arguments, have likewise commandeered the young girls' woolen garments...

Written to be a companion to Jan Brett's The show more Mitten, a picture-book retelling of a popular Ukrainian folktale involving a mitten that serves as temporary home to a parade of animals, The Hat is an original winter-time tale, one that also features a human garment and a group of animals. Hedgie is an adorable hero for Brett's tale - I have a soft spot for hedgehogs and porcupines - and I appreciated the humorous ending, in which all the other animals, after initially laughing at Hedgie, decide that they too want a warm piece of clothing. The artwork, as is to be expected from Brett, is lovely, capturing the charm of a wintry landscape. Apparently Brett traveled to the Danish island of Funen, home of Hans Christian Andersen, for visual inspiration for her artwork. As always, I found her animals and landscapes particularly appealing here. Recommended to all Jan Brett fans, and to anyone looking for amusing animal stories for the picture-book set. show less

A hedgehog gets a sock stuck on his head, and to avoid embarrassment he tells the other farm animals it's his stylish new hat, starting a new fad that causes some inconvenience for the little girl of the farm. It's cute, but it's a slightly different but also slightly less satisfying spin on Jan Brett's previous and better book, The Mitten.

I loved the story The Hat, by Jan Brett. The stories illustrations are incredibly done and enhance the story. Jan Brett uses the border of the page to show greater detail. For example, on the right side of each page the sidebar shows the animal that Hedgie will meet next. On the left side it shows the reader what Lisa is doing. Even though the story revolves around Headgie the drawings lets the author learn more about Lisa. The clothesline is depicted on the tops of the page. Every page shows that another piece of clothing had gone missing. The reader does not know why until they finish the book. The reader can imagine a whole new story by just looking at the border of each page and the pictures add on details to the written text. show more Secondly, this story has an organized plot. This is a book for younger students, so the plot is easily deconstructed so younger students can understand it. Headgie continues to meet a new animal on the farm on each page. It is a very simple plot, yet it still provides the reader with lots of information. The reader learns that it is okay to be different. It is more important to be happy with oneself than to care about what others think. show less

In my opinion, this is a great book, and probably one of the cutest books I have read so far. It's hard to go wrong with animals and clothes, but that could just be me. There are a few things that I really liked about this book, the first being that the illustrations were produced in great detail, the second being the how the plot was organized and the third being the organization of the writing. The illustrations were some of the best I have seen so far; they were greatly detailed and took up every page. Each page had a border decoration: the top border was the clothes line with the woven clothes starting to disappear as each animal took one, the right border was the animal that was to come next, and the right border an image of what show more the child was doing. The fact that the images are so large made it feel like you are actually in the story; when the hedgehog is talking to the cat, the image surrounds the text, with a hedgehog and a cat talking outside in the snow. I also really enjoyed the plot, as while it gets into repetition of what's going to happen next as the hedgehog talks to all the animals, in the end the hedgehog is the one looking at everyone else like they are crazy. This allows for the plot to never get boring, no matter how many animals he talks to. Thirdly, I really like the organization of the writing, as it plays in with the plot. The writing is organized in a way that young kids can understand what is going on, and will be able to understand the joke at the end. The biggest example of this is that each animal laughs at the hedgehog for wearing the woven sock, but all proceed to go get their own anyway. In the end, the hedgehog is laughing at them, as animals don't wear clothes. The big idea of this story is that you should never pick on someone as you don't know what their situation is, and you might just want to be like them instead. show less

Folllwing the pattern of Brett's highly successful book The Mitten, this book gives reades another bunch of animals with a penchant for adopting human clothing to combat the winter cold. The adorable hedgehog who gets himself stuck to a wolly winter sock is a quick thinker - telling the other farm animals that he found himself a fantastic hat as he secretly struggles to extricate himself. By the time his spines are detangled the rest of the animals have adopted their own silly hats and the hedgehog is the last one laughing.

The Hat is a cute book about a porcupine who gets himself stuck in an unfortunate situation. After Hedgie gets the stocking stuck to his head, the other farm animals realize how resourceful he is being by finding his “hat”. I liked that the animals in the story have just enough of a fantastical personality to make this book entertaining, but are still pretty accurate in the way they are illustrated and the noises they make. The animals still honk, snort, oink, and meow as they would normally but, they still communicate with one another and have human like emotions and actions. The illustrations Brett provides in the hat are as beautiful as always. Featured in the border art is the clothesline with slowly disappearing articles of show more clothing, Lisa inside the farm house, and the next animal Hedgie will see as he tries to make his way back to his den. I like this book because it can teach a child to be accepting of others who maybe look different, and spreads the importance of being resourceful. Although Hedgie is fibbing to his friends for the reason the stocking is stuck on his head, he still does not like that he is being laughed at. This book can aid children in taking a second to think before they speak. The Hat also shows children that although they may get stuck in an embarrassing situation, they can make the most of it by laughing at themselves a little bit. show less

I found this book to be very short and sweet. Although the author did a great job with the context of the book, I have to say the illustrations made the story more endearing. The illustrator and the author did a great job of giving each of the animals their very own personalities, especially the hedgehog.The message that stuck out to me throughout this story was to march to the beat of your own drum, no matter people say. The idea of this is so important in children. Often times kids are scared to be themselves because of the scrutiny of others. Hedgie wears his sock as a hat with pride even after all of the animals tell him how silly he looks with it on. Despite the ridicule the other animals gave Hedgie about his hat, he continued to show more hold his ground and give them reasons why he loves his hat, " everyone should wear a hat in winter when its cold and snowy,"he replied to the horse who questioned what was on his head. I also enjoyed how the book came to an end. The ending lifted Hedgies spirits when he saw all of his animal friends wearing clothes on their heads as hats. show less