Jennie's Hat

Jennies hat won the Ezra Jack Keats award. It is about a young girl named Jennie who is waiting for her aunt to bring her a nice hat. Jennie thinks this hat will be big and flowery, but it is not. Just a plain old straw hat. She tries other items as hats instead like flower pots, and goes to the park later to take her mind off the hat. However, the next day she sees the ladies at church wearing pretty, flowery hats. Her friends bring her items to decorate her hat and make her happy. This book uses point of view because Jennie believes her hat is too plain and boring, but to her friends or to others, her hat looks alright.
The diversity focus is about how people who do not have much in their lives can come together to make something show more special in thought for each other. show less

The story revolves around a little girl named Jennie who eagerly awaits a new hat promised by her aunt. She imagines it will be big, beautiful, and adorned with colorful flowers. However, when the box arrives, Jennie discovers a plain straw hat inside, which disappoints her. Undeterred, she tries various items on her head, including a flowerpot and a kettle, but none of them work. The heartwarming twist comes when her feathered and furry friends—birds and animals—remember her kindness and help transform her plain hat into something special, adding leaves, ribbons, and other delightful embellishments.

This Keats' book is about a young girl who searches for a hat far less "boring" than the one her aunt sent. I enjoyed its lightheartedness and would include it in my classroom for the main character's creative mind-set. I would read it to grades PreK-1st and have readers make their own hat in an art lesson plan.

I was a little disappointed by this book. Although the illustrations are done in the unique way that Ezra Jack Keats is famous for, they almost contrast between styles too much for my taste. I thought that the plot was a little bland, and that the language could have depicted the main character's emotions in a stronger way. I had a hard time identifying the central message, which I took to be about embracing creativity and individual style.

Can't rate. Illustrations are gorgeous. But child me, and adult me, are too literal to move from a normal real world into a world where songbirds would find pretty things to put on Jenny's hat while she's wearing it, much less build a nest on it. There's some metaphor or something there, I think, that we're missing.

Adorable book. After receiving a plain hat Jennie imagines many exciting hats for herself. And then with some help, her own hat receives at least 27 pieces of flair. ❤️

This is a book about a little girl who is waiting for a hat to come in the mail, from her Aunt as a present. When she receives the hat she is very disappointed because she thinks the hat is plain. To make herself feel better, she goes and feeds the birds like she does every afternoon. When Jennie gets home she is reminded about the hat and is sad again. On the way to church in the morning, she is admiring all the ornate hats all the ladies are wearing. When they leave church, birds start dropping flowers and decorations all over her hat, while everyone stares in admiration. Jennie wraps the hat to save it forever, and is now content. The illustrations are heavily detailed and colorful. It makes for a very beautiful book.