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Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Old Hat by Emily Gravett. Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 2018


Harbet wears a hat made for him by his Nana. It's warm and colourful and above all, comfortable. The only problem is,  it's "old hat" (I rather like the joke here, though adults are more likely to get it than children). It's just not fashionable and everyone is laughing at him for wearing it. So Harbet buys the latest hat - in his case, a sort of Carmen Miranda fruit style, which he can actually eat. It doesn't take long for that to go out of fashion, along with all the other new hats he tries. Finally, Harbet does something different - and unexpected...

The story has its moral, about being yourself and not joining in the latest fads, but the real charm, for me, was the art, which reminds me of Dr Seuss. In fact, Harbet is very much a Dr Seuss critter, and the others have Dr Seuss's over-the-top silliness.

Definitely a fun book to read with your pre-school or early years child, and I can see an early years teacher using this to make imaginative hats in class.

Buy it at your local good bookshop or from the usual online retailers. 

2 comments:

AJ Blythe said...

I like this cover. It would have caught my eye when I was hunting for picture books for the Barbarians.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Very cute cover, indeed! This one really is for the littlies, though. I’m donating it to a primary school, so its intended audience can enjoy it.