Caldecott Monday: This Is Not My Hat

[osprey_archer]

Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat is one of those delightfully absurdist picture books that you just have to run with. A small fish has just stolen a tiny, tiny hat from a big, big fish. (The big fish takes up almost the entirety of both pages of the book.) Why do these fish have hats? How does a fish even keep a hat on its head? Who cares! Hats are cool.

What I especially love about this book is how much expression Klassen gets from these fish using just their eyes. They don't have mouths or ears or noses, and although they do have fins those never seem to move - but just the juxtaposition of the fish's eyes with the words on the page is enough to tell the story. The small fish swims with eyes open wide, stolen hat on its head, as it runs through a monolog along the lines of "I'm sure the big fish won't wake up - and won't notice the hat missing - and won't know where I've gone" -

And meanwhile we have illustrations beneath of the big fish waking up, noticing the hat is gone (its eyes roll up to look at the top of its head), and then barreling out full steam ahead to find the hat thief, eyes narrow with outrage.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Why do these fish have hats? How does a fish even keep a hat on its head?

This reminds me of a Moth Radio Hour segment I heard with Neil Gaiman talking about he was no good at playing sports as a kid because his mind would start to wander, and the thing he started wondering about was magazine ads for sea monkeys, and how the dad sea monkey was portrayed smoking a pipe, and how did he smoke a pipe underwater???

I think I've seen this book, though--and it is very cute.

[osprey_archer]

The underwater world is a strange place. I often feel that mermaid stories that go down to the merworld below haven't thought it through in sufficient detail. Do the merpeople have gills, or are they air-breathers like dolphins and whales? Is there some kind of ritual associated with rising to the surface to breathe? (I feel like that's the kind of thing that would accrue all kinds of symbolic meaning.) Whether they have gills or breathe air, either way they're not going to sleep like we do, so that will be totally different too...

Ahem. Anyway, yes! This is an adorable book.

[silverusagi]

Ha, I JUST flipped through this book the other day!

*poor little fish* :(

[osprey_archer]

Psh, little fish would have been fine if it had just resisted the urge to steal the hat. You brought your fate on yourself, little fish!

[ladyherenya]

I love this book! One of my favourite picture book things is when the words and the pictures tell (slightly) different stories, leaving the reader to put the two together to get at the actual story. It's a lot of fun to read aloud.

I like that the ocean is properly black, rather than the usual shades of blue that picture books often go for. And yes, the eyes are incredibly expressive... really effective.

[osprey_archer]

Yes! I love the way that the words are telling the little fish's thought process, which is at odds with what's actually going on with the big fish, who is doing everything the little fish doesn't want: waking up, noticing the hat gone, and getting maaaaaad.

[ladyherenya]

There's also the ambiguity of what happens when the big fish catches up with the little fish. I've had some interesting conversations with kids about what they think happens.

[osprey_archer]

Oh! How do they tend to interpret that?

[ladyherenya]

They tend to assume that the fish was killed or eaten, and tend to be okay with that too, but one or two have come up with a non-violent "he makes him give the hat back" explanation.