Cat in the Hat? Hats Are Not For Cats! by Jacqueline K. Raymer

Who says?

A cute little cat finds a little red fez. It fits. But then...

There's a supercilious voice from on high....

Excuse me, cat. I see you're wearing a hat,
but hats...
... are not for cats.

He insists that headgear is only for that superior group -- dogs! He shows off his spiffy top hat, that chapeau of choice for superior canines, preferably, one assumes, of the shaggy persuasion!

The little grey kitty tries to change his mind, modeling a pink cloche, and a long, stripey knitted cap with a pom-pom.  The dog promptly points to his poster, the "CORRECT WEARING OF HATS," in which the cat in the hat is simply X-ed out.

Not fine hats or flapper,

not dashing and dapper!

Also to be banned are party toppers or artsy berets. Not frilly or silly, not stripy or dotty.

But this little kitty is inventive. She tries sombreros and tam o'shanters. Nordic ear warmers. Tropical sunhats. Every size and every style. But hats modeled by cats cannot persuade this picky, cranky canine. As far as he is concerned, they are ALL his hats!

But the grey cat campaigns for her rights and raises a cadre of cats who wear hats. They liberate all the haberdashery, and the little grey cat pounces and takes possession of the dog's very own top hat.

Cats rule, in Jacqueline K. Raymer's first picture book, Hats Are Not for Cats! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2019), as the victorious cat pack models all the headgear, from boater to bowler, from sunbonnet to stetson. But turnabout-is-fair turns into it's better-to-share, in Rayner's jolly rhymes and ebullient illustrations, Dog happily regains his high hat as his new friends live it up in their best-liked lids. It's an easy reading, funny, rhyming story that will please preschoolers to primary graders, and a fun picture book to read on HAT DAY!

Share this new one with John Klassen's classic hat tales, I Want My Hat Back, We Found a Hat, and This Is Not My Hat. (See reviews here.)

The Missing Lid Mystery: The Vanishing Baseball Cap by Misti Keniston

Daniel is on a field trip to the Museum of History. But...

Before he gets in the door, he notices his green baseball cap is gone.

Can he find it? Will he fail?

DETECTIVES FOX AND GOAT ARE ON THE TRAIL!

There are so many history exhibits, and it seems that there are hats in every one!

In the Wild West display, the  cowpoke wears a hat, but it's too wide to be a baseball cap. In the sea life tank, the diver's helmet is too big. The astronaut in the showcase wears a hard helmet, and in the early flight exhibit, the pilot's leather helmet is brown.

The early photography exhibit has a figure in a tall black silk hat, but it's way too tall to be Daniel's cap, and the pirate's hat is black and triangular. None of these hats is like his small green cap. The field trip is almost over, and the group is exiting through the gift shop. Is Daniel's cap a goner?

But with Fox and Goat on the case, Daniel's hat turns up, in Misti Keniston's third in series, The Vanishing Baseball Cap: A Fox and Goat Mystery (Fox & Goat Mysteries) (Schiffer Publishing, 2019). Kids who keep their eyes peeled through the story will probably spy the missing hat before Fox and Goat do, and to underline the lesson, author Keniston includes a brief appendix with the full rubric of color, size, and shape and texture that underlie the search. This series is great for reviewing the elements of sorting for preschoolers just learning to match characteristics--providing a basic lesson in vocabulary and reinforcing essential skills in math and science and art.

Pass It On! The Pink Hat by Andrew Joyner

First, there wasn't a hat.

Then, there was...a pink hat.

Knitting by her window overlooking a busy street, a woman knits and knits until her knitting turns into a cozy pink hat, which she promptly stretches out to use as a foot warmer. But soon the woman drops it into her knitting basket and goes off to make herself a cup of tea.

But the hat doesn't stay there long. Her cat pounces on it, and bats it around... until he pushes it over the windowsill.

The wind catches the hat and blows it into the branches of a tree, where it catches the eye of some kids. One girl climbs the tree, but it is hard to reach the hat.... until the hat shakes loose and falls right onto a baby in a passing stroller, where his mother tucks it snugly around him and moves on.

That is, until... the baby gives a wiggle and a dog swipes it and makes a run for it. But when the dog gets bored and drops it, a girl passing by with a violin case rescues it.

The girl washed the hat ... and dried the hat.

She wore it again, and again, and again.

But that's not the end of the hat's adventures. It becomes a boxing glove, a mask for whomever is IT in hide-and-seek, and even a paintbrush sack... until....

She wore her pink hat,

And everyone else wore one, too!

The girl and dog join many women and some boys and men wearing pink hats in a crowd with signs that say GIRL POWER and WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, while the woman and her cat watch the parade go by from her window. It's not just a hat. It's a movement!

Andrew Joyner's The Pink Hat (Schwartz and Wade, 2017)l highlights the hat, the only bit of color in his charming black and white  illustrations with a cityscape filled with all sorts of people and pets as they merge into a multitude of pink knitted hats in the Women's March of 2017. The hat, of course, is both a cozy cap with many possibilities and a metaphor for the march of January 21, 2017, just right for youngsters who will enjoy the adventures of the traveling hat along the way to its big day. This one is just right for International Women's Day in March. Share this one with Kobi Yamada's similarly themed What Do You Do With an Idea?

A Hat of a Different Color! We Found A Hat by Jon Klassen

WE FOUND IT TOGETHER.

BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE HAT...

Two desert tortoises come upon a lost hat. Each tries it on.

The hat is a tall, impeccably white, ten-gallon, Hopalong Cassidy-type hat, tempting, but totally unsuitable for tortoises.

But the two think otherwise.

They each try it on, and the other generously pronounces that it looks good on his friend, despite the obvious fact that the hat covers their heads, necks, and shoulders (to the extent that tortoises have shoulders).

But it is clear that each covets the hat, and they rationally agree that the fair thing to do is to leave the hat where it lies.

They mosey off toward their sunning rock, but their ovoid eyes, with backward looks, betray that each wants that hat!

Night begins to fall, the two tortoises amble past a couple of saguaro cacti, and clamber up a knoll to their warm rock as the sun sets behind them.

WE ARE GOING TO SLEEP HERE... TOGETHER.

One tortoise's eyelids grow heavy at half-mast, but the other's eyes shift back toward the hat, his intentions clear. He wants that hat. He waits for the other to fall sleep.

ARE YOU ALMOST ASLEEP?

His partner mumbles that he is, and the first tortoise sits tight, his wide-awake eyes sliding back toward that hat.

ARE YOU ALL THE WAY ASLEEP?

His partner murmurs convincingly that he is and that he is in the middle of a dream.

The first tortoise begins to sneak toward the hat. This is his chance! Now, if his friend just stays asleep, the hat will soon be his. Then he hears his friend's voice.

I AM DREAMING THAT I HAVE A HAT.

The tempted tortoise stands over the hat with a sly look that seems to say, "In your dreams, buddy!"

Then the "sleeping" tortoise adds the final twist:

YOU ALSO HAVE A HAT.

That changes everything, in Jon Klassen's just published closer in his Hat Trilogy, We Found a Hat (Candlewick Press, 2016). How can the potential perp take the hat in the face of his friend's generosity? He can't, of course, and soon the two are dreaming together, both wearing a white hat. In this last tale in the trilogy, justice is again done, but this time in fairness and friendship rewon. Author Klassen sticks to his wry, straight-faced dialogue, each word well-weighed and telling. His illustrations are equally spare, but this time he uses a different, desert-toned palette, and his choice of a white hat instead of a black hat hints at his theme that the good guy is gonna win in this one--winning not in swiftly executed "justice," but in mutual affection. The final spread shows the two tortoises sound asleep and dreaming of a world in which both wear white hats under a starry desert sky.

The stars have also come out in fittingly starred reviews for this sly and yet sweet finale to Klassen's trilogy. "A different but wholly delightful and thought-provoking capper to Klassen’s ingenious series, says School Library Journal.

Lots of Lids! More Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slododkina

ONCE THERE WAS A PEDDLER WHO SOLD CAPS.

So began Esphyr Slobodkina's revered folktale, Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business and seventy years later, after recovering his own checked cap, and the four gray, brown, blue, and red caps from a mob of mischievous and imitative monkeys, the dapper peddler wakes from an unprofitable day and a weary night's sleep, ready for another work day.  He carefully stows his wares on his head. First his own cap. . .

THEN A BUNCH OF GRAY CAPS,
A BUNCH OF BROWN CAPS,
A BUNCH OF BLUE CAPS,
AND ON THE VERY TOP...

A BUNCH OF RED CAPS.

The mettlesome monkeys who kept on stealing his hats the day before are still on his mind, but at first he sees no monkeys anywhere, and his mind turns to making some sales in the nearby town.

But unseen behind him, the monkeys are walking toward town, too.

RIGHT FOOT, LEFT FOOT.

RIGHT FOOT, LEFT FOOT.

All unaware of his following, the peddler reaches the town and begins to hawk his wares, pointing up to his caps and singing out...

"CAPS FOR SALE!

FIFTY CENTS A CAP!"

But the mimicking monkeys soon make themselves seen, copying every move the peddler makes--shaking their fingers, and hooting...

TSZ TSZ TSZ!

When he takes a banana for breakfast, they do, too. But when he sees them drop the peels on the street, the peddler models putting the peel in the trash can. Monkey see, monkey do!

When he makes a sale and bows to his customers, the monkeys bow, too. The townspeople in the square are fascinated, and one by one the red caps, the blue caps, the brown caps, and the gray caps are all sold, with flourishes and bows from the monkey troop. The people smile and the children laugh at the show, and the tired but happily richer peddler and his long-tailed partners head for home, satisfied.

RIGHT FOOT,

LEFT FOOT.

It's not often that a beloved story book character wakes up after seventy years and goes right back to work, but that's what happens in this never before published sequel to a classic, More Caps for Sale: Another Tale of Mischievous Monkeys (HarperCollins, 2015). The unsold caps are waiting when the peddler awakes, and the snoozing monkeys in the nearby tree are ready for more high jinks of their own, just as we left them when we last closed the cover on this much beloved book.

Esphyr Slobodkina's friend, Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer, had urged the pioneering artist over the years to do a sequel, and Slobodkina's follow-up plot of making do with monkey-see, monkey-do and her additional illustrations merge well with those from the original book in another peddler and monkey story that is just as clever and even more satisfying than the first.

As the New York Times reviewer adds, "The story feels satisfyingly complete. When we say goodbye to the peddler he's just as enigmatic as ever!"

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends: Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won

GO AWAY!

I'M GRUMPY!

Elephant awakes in a deep funk! His own private cloud of gloom hangs over his head as he sits up in bed.

Even a cheery ding-dong from the doorbell doesn't break his mood as he stomps down to the door.

But there's no one there. What is there is a large box with a perky red ribbon. Who could resist looking inside?

Inside the box is a hat wearing a hat wearing a hat, wearing a hat.... A hat unlike any other hat!

IT WAS HARD TO STAY GRUMPY NOW.

This quintuple-decker topper has a top hat (complete with cup holder and cuckoo clock), crowned with a kingly crown, topped with a red mortarboard (with its own red-and-white striped awning), under a wide-brimmed red-white-and blue sun hat with feather, set off with a party hat with tassel on top.

Nobody could be grumpy wearing such a hat, and Elephant smiles broadly as he dons his mystery gift and sets off to show it off to his friends.

But it must be blue Monday in the forest. Friend Zebra is in a definitely down mood. In fact, he is GRUMPY! But Elephant is too upbeat to let Zebra get him down. He reaches up with his trunk for the party hat and sets it jauntily on Zebra's head. Zebra doffs his blues and the two share smiles.

It's off to share their fun with their friends, but as in turn they find Turtle withdrawn into his shell, Owl moping in his dark hole in his tree, and Lion depressed inside his den.

There's nothing for it but for Elephant to share his wonderful hats with all his friends. Turtle gets the sun hat, Owl appropriately gets the mortarboard, and of course Lion gets the crown.  Only Lion does not smile:

"I CAN'T CHEER WHILE GIRAFFE IS NOT FEELING WELL."

Giraffe is definitely down in the mouth, with his gloomy face buried in the foliage of a tree.

And, alas! Elephant is out of hats. What to do?

The conclusion of Brian Won's mood-altering Hooray for Hat! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) is a happy and heartwarming heads-up for the power of friendship, as all the friends doff their hats and repack them into the gift box for Giraffe. Who could remain melancholy wearing that stack of hats? Not Giraffe, and it's a big shout-out for hats and friends in this winning new picture book.

With a simple textual refrain which will strike a chord with kids and gloriously simple but evocative digital illustrations done in a dynamic pastel palette, not to mention the vertical double-page spreads which depict Elephant and Giraffe modeling  their multi-layered chapeau, this brief story celebrates the power of the gift of mood-altering friendship. Hats off to Brian Won!

Hold On To Your Hat, Rene! Magritte's Marvelous Hat by D. B. Johnson

ONE BRIGHT DAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, THE PAINTER MAGRITTE SAW A MARVELOUS HAT IN A STORE WINDOW.

WHEN HE TRIED IT ON, THE HAT POPPED UP AND FLOATED JUST ABOVE HIS HEAD.

MAGRITTE LIKED THE WAY THE HAT DID NOT PINCH HIS EARS OR MUSS HIS HAIR.

HE HURRIED UP TO HIS ROOM.... FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, PAINTING WAS EASY.... MAGRITTE PAINTED HIS BEST PICTURE YET.

Life with a magical levitating Derby hat is exhilarating and inspiring for the Belgian artist. His paintings become even more magically surreal, and when he goes out for his daily constitutional, the hat loves to play hide-and-seek with him.

Life is good, and Magritte is excited with the products of his painting. But he becomes so meticulous that one day he scolds his hat for being too playful:

"HAT," SAID MAGRITTE. "I CAN'T PAINT WHEN YOU'RE BOUNCING. JUST BE A HAT AND SIT ON MY HEAD."

But the hat has a mind of its own, and it is offended by being asked to abandon its magical ways. It floats out the window, leaving Magritte with paint splashed on his face as his beloved painting un-paints itself before his eyes.

"I CAN'T PAINT WITHOUT MY HAT!" MAGRITTE CRIED.

Without the playful creativity the magical hat engenders, Magritte can't do any work, and he realizes that all work and no play makes a painter a dull plodder. Somehow he must find that imaginative hat and trick it into following him back to his studio. And the rest is art history.

At least it is in D. B. Johnson's definitely off-beat Magritte's Marvelous Hat (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), in which the celebrated Brown extends the art of the picture book with in his forthcoming work. Making deft use of see-through overlay page techniques to tell this story of the surrealist's haberdasherial muse represented by the free-floating and capricious bowler, D. B Johnson, creator of the notable Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, engages in joyful "picture-play" in his latest. "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see," said Rene Magritte, and in his hide-and-seek hunt for his inspirational hat, D.B. Johnson's hero gets to take advantage of his "now you see it, now you don't" headgear amongst many sly visual illusionary allusions to the surrealist's own creations, providing plenty of fun pages for youngsters and surreal art fanciers alike to pore over. An appended "Author's Note" deftly brings readers up to speed on the work of his hero, Rene Magritte.

"Arty, amusing and exceedingly clever," quips Kirkus