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

[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.