Tiger (Glad) Rags: Tiger in a Pink Hat by Nicola Stott McCourt

One Day Tiger went shopping.
He bought a pink hat.
Imagine that! A pink hat!
Whoever heard of of a tiger in a pink hat?

If Dora the Explorer can wear hot pink with orange, why NOT a tiger?

But Tiger doesn't just stop with a pink chapeau! He adds an umbrella with stripes, (YIPES!), green gloves (HEAVENS ABOVE!) and drenches himself in smelly perfume before taking off on his newly purchased roller skates. But roller blades apparently don't make the grade, so Tiger trades them for a new set of wheels, a little red car, (HOW BIZARRE!) and decked out in a store-bought shaggy coat and a big diamond ring (IT HAD SOME BLING!), puts his gear in, well, gear, and zooms off in his car.

But even conspicuous consumption has its downside, and when his car gets stuck in the snow, Tiger has a change of heart, shucks all his stuff, and heads off for the nice warm jungle.

Author Nicola Stott McCourt and illustrator Leah-Ellen Heming tuck a nice little color lesson into their anti-acquisition cumulative cautionary tale (with apologies to the old lady who swallowed this and that) of a tiger who leaves it all behind for the simple life in Tiger In A Pink Hat (Worthwhile, 2009). Bright colors, a tiger as tantalizing as Tigger, and rousing rhyming verse make this one just right for toddler story time.