I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press, 2011) is a hilarious simple picture book about a bear looking for his hat. As he looks for it, he asks his animal friends if they’ve seen it. Then he remembers where he saw it. Did the young reader see it too?
My son (an early reader at almost 4) loves this book mostly because he can read it himself – and he really does read it! Each page has two sentences, and the print is large with plenty of white space. Because it does not look intimidating, my son gave it a try and was delighted that he could read all of the first pages. (“My hat is gone. I want it back.”) Then the repeated question on each page (“Have you seen my hat?”) and varied answers (all meaning the same thing) made it a great reading start for Raisin.
I think it’s a perfect early reading book, but it’s also a fun read-aloud picture book. I should note that the end is a little grisly but it still works for kids: Raisin, at age 3½, didn’t quite get it, and I think older kids would find it quite funny. Some day he’ll get the joke. I’ll know when he starts laughing on that last page.
I received this as a review copy at BEA.
I Want My Hat Back won a 2012 Geisel honor.
Kid Review
A conversation with my three-year-old son about I Want My Hat Back.
