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Summary
Summary
Hold on to your hats for the conclusion of the celebrated hat trilogy by Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen, who gives his deadpan finale a surprising twist.
Two turtles have found a hat. The hat looks good on both of them. But there are two turtles. And there is only one hat. . . . Evoking hilarity and sympathy, the shifting eyes tell the tale in this brilliantly paced story in three parts, highlighting Jon Klassen's visual comedy and deceptive simplicity. The delicious buildup takes an unexpected turn that is sure to please loyal fans and newcomers alike.
Author Notes
Jon Klassen is a writer and illustrator of children's books. He won the 2013 Caldecott Medal for illustration, recognizing This Is Not My Hat, which he also wrote. He is also well known for his 2011 picture book I Want My Hat Back.
Jon studied animation at Sheridan College. He moved to Los Angeles after graduation and made an animated short with Dan Rodriques, An Eye for Annai. He worked on Neil Gaiman's Coralin and Kung Fu Panda, and was the art director for U2's animated video for I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight."
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-In this capper to Klassen's delightfully sly "Hat" trilogy," two wide-eyed tortoises covet a 10-gallon hat. The economy of words, simple shapes, and rich textures highlight the stark beauty of the desert landscape and allow readers to appreciate the understated drama and humor. A surprisingly tender ending-with just the barest hint of surrealism-emphasizes the power of sacrifice and the endurance of friendship. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Klassen's I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat stand alone, but they also form a setup for this tale, in which two turtles stumble upon a big white hat in the desert ("We found a hat. We found it together") and try it on in turn ("It looks good on both of us"). Klassen's artwork, spare and sly, tells a different story. The hat does not look good. It looks silly, as if the turtle's head were stuck in a plastic bucket. "We must leave the hat here and forget that we found it," says the first turtle, with fairness in mind. The other turtle's gaze shifts left. It wants that hat. Readers of the earlier stories will recognize that look; it bodes ill. Klassen divides the book into three distinct acts; in the second, as the turtles watch the sunset, the second turtle's eyes again stray toward the hat. Uh-oh. In the third section, the first turtle settles down to sleep, and the shifty-eyed turtle begins inching toward the hat, talking all the while to the first turtle ("Are you all the way asleep?"). Readers who think they know what's coming will be wrong: the conclusion doesn't involve sharing, peacemaking, or violence. Instead, Klassen considers the instant at which a decision to act can break either way, depending on who's tempted and whether anyone else is watching. In contrast to the first two books, which relied on a certain conspiratorial menace, this one ends with a moment of grace and a sky full of stars. All three stories are about justice. It's just that justice doesn't always mean the same thing. Ages 4-8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
This third picture book by Klassen about a hat (I Want My Hat Back, rev. 11/11; This Is Not My Hat, rev. 9/12), itself written in three parts, is a bit longer than its predecessors, but the storyline remains as simple -- and in its focus and themes, familiar -- as ever. Amidst a desert landscape, two turtles find a hat together. It looks good on both of them, but there is only one hat. Rather than squabble over ownership, they decide to leave it where they find it and move on. Yet one turtle cannot forget the hat and continues to wrestle with and eventually overcome the baser instincts of greed and deceit. Visually, the book is unmistakably the work of Klassen: a monochromatic palette that ranges, as the day progresses from early morning to darkest, starriest night, from gray to black with the dusky glow of the setting sun as the lone contrasting accent color; a text consisting entirely of dialogue/monologue that either runs along the top of a double-page spread or stands alone on an unillustrated page; and finally, of course, the telltale eyes that telegraph so much about what is really happening in the story. The tenderness in this book (with its uplifting ending) is just as surprising as the black humor in the earlier ones. While the book is richer in the context of the two previous volumes, Klassen leaves enough space for uninitiated readers to make their own meaning out of this story about a hat -- but, here, also about an enduring and precious friendship. jonathan hunt(c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Rounding out what is now being called the Hat Trilogy, Klassen presents the story of two tortoises that find a hat.I Want My Hat Back (2011) concerns the victim of a hat theft. The Caldecott-winning This Is Not My Hat (2012) focuses on the perpetrator of a similar crime. In each book, the picture-text dynamic implies that the hats rightful owner does violence to the thief at the end. This tale is both more ambiguous and less action-oriented. Two tortoises find one hat in the desert. Each tries it on; though it comically covers each tortoises entire head, it looks good on both of us, they conclude. Deciding that one hat is not enough for two tortoises, they leave it in order to watch the sunset from a nearby rock, where they later bed down. Klassen employs his customary flat, minimalist style in a desert palette, his characters heavy-lidded eyes doing the subtextual heavy lifting: they may say they are watching the sunset, but each is clearly thinking about the hat. The final act, in which one tortoise descends the rock toward the hat and the other, though supposedly sleeping, narrates a star-filled dream in which they both wear hats, challenges readers to construct their own endings. There are no belly laughs here, but patient children and Klassens fans will be fully engaged. Beguiling. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In this concluding volume of a thematic trilogy, Klassen employs all his trademark dry wit and deadpan humor to tell the story of a hat-related caper. Unlike its predecessors (I Want My Hat Back, 2011, and This Is Not My Hat, 2012), the hat in question has already been found. Two big-eyed turtles stumble across a white cowboy hat in the middle of the desert and take turns trying it on. It suits them both, they decide: But it would not be right if one of us had a hat and the other did not. There is only one thing to do. We must leave the hat here and forget that we found it. This is easier said than done: as they watch the sunset and go to sleep, one turtle in particular just can't keep his mind off the hat. Most of the story is told through that turtle's expressive eyes, as it glances furtively between its companion and the hat. The three-part narrative has a distinctly western feel, complete with a desert setting drawn in dusty pink and brown tones and then, of course, there's the sense of impending betrayal. The conclusion might surprise even those familiar with Klassen's twist endings, and the growing tensions, simple narrative, and intriguing details will endear this to many. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An extensive author tour and national publicity campaign are just the tip of the marketing-plan iceberg for this latest from Caldecott-winning Klassen.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ONE OF THE wonders of literature is its potential to generate worlds that are strange and unreal and yet entirely believable. "I wish I could be there!" we say with a mix of excitement and yearning when we are immersed in such an imaginary place. But it is difficult to create a world, even a tiny one, and some authors are more successful than others at playing demiurge, as three new picture books show. The forest, where so many such literary worlds are found, is the classic setting chosen by Emily Winfield Martin ("The Wonderful Things You Will Be") for her fourth picture book, "The Littlest Family's Big Day." One morning, a father bear, a mother bear, a child bear and a baby fox move into a tree trunk in the middle of the woods. As soon as they're settled, they go for a walk. We're told that they meet and greet a series of little animals and some elves, though oddly we don't see them together with the other creatures. They then follow the breeze and find the wind, which Martin depicts by showing flying fairies and butterflies. Using leaves as canoes, the family paddles down the river. A lizard standing on a lily pad sticks his tongue out at them. Given his placement at the margin of the right page and directly in the foursome's way, you might think he is trying to block their passage or otherwise interact with them, but when you turn the page the lizard is gone and the family is eating strawberries back on shore. When the rain starts - the narrator tells us it "pelted down," but we only see a few drops - they run for cover under a mushroom. While we're still waiting to learn what their diminutive size has to do with the story, they realize they are "Lost," and the capital L gives us a hint of what the real theme of the book might be. This comes in an arresting two-page spread, with a bold composition and contrasted palette of light and dark shades. But already on the next page they are "Found" by an owl. Given the difference in size and the natural disposition of raptors, I was hoping for at least some uncertainty regarding the owl's intentions, but the protagonists' composure makes it clear they are in no danger. In fact, they are flown home, where an expressionless crowd of tiny critters - the same ones they greeted earlier in the book - surprises them with a dinner party. The critters are all even smaller than the "littlest" family, which contributes to my confusion about what this fuzzily illustrated story is about. IN "DU IZ TAK?," her second picture book as both author and illustrator after "Home," Carson Ellis has created a fantastic microcosm with her usual grace and inventiveness. Her imaginary land is delightfully welcoming, even if - or especially because - it is also a realistic world, one with joys and dangers, achievements and disappointments (not to mention pipe-smoking roly-polies). In a made-up but easily decipherable language, Ellis presents a group of fun-loving bugs excited to discover a fast-growing plant. They build a fort on it, complete with a rope ladder, an acorn-topped chimney and a pirate flag. The bugs enjoy their time up there, playing, reading and eating mushrooms. But a fun-killing spider takes over the fort, to the rage and dismay of its legitimate owners. In an even more dramatic scene, a bird gobbles up the spider. While the bugs clean up the mess, a beautiful, large blossom appears on the plant. More creatures come to witness the magnificent spectacle in a spread that seems to be a celebration of life itself. Soon, though, the inevitable happens: The blossom wilts, the plant dies, the bugs leave. It's suddenly and magically nighttime. A cocoon that for the whole book has seemed to wait patiently to be part of the story finally opens. A moth comes out and dances elegantly to the music played by a cricket violinist. Then the snow makes everything still. But springtime, of course, arrives next, bringing new plants, bugs and stories. Many more amusing incidents should be left for the reader to discover. Given the genuinely handmade and idiosyncratic style through which Ellis once again demonstrates her mastery, I don't understand her decision to copy and paste certain elements of the drawings over and over again, in particular the digitally repurposed log and ground, which are such essential pieces of the composition of each spread. While most things in the pictures change, develop and even die, the log and the ground stay virtually the same through the four seasons, down to every paint stroke. Ellis might have intended this as a device to emphasize the growing of everything else around a few unchanging elements, but for me it breaks the spell of a lifelike universe created by hand. Even so, I was completely captivated by Ellis's wonderful creatures, their charming little world and their droll language. jon klassen'S typical minimalism reaches a new level of refinement in "We Found a Hat" - in my opinion the best and most stirring in his hat trilogy, which includes the Caldecott Medal winner "This Is Not My Hat." The story, unusually for a picture book, is told in three parts, each with a title. Without this subdivision, one wouldn't have the same reading experience, and that would be a shame. The first part opens against a flat, gray backdrop. Two turtles, identifiable by the different designs on their shells, find a tall and white cowboy hat. They both like it very much, and agree it looks good on each. But they immediately see the unresolvable problem: two turtles and only one hat. The best thing to do, they decide, is to leave the hat where it is, and move on. But Klassen, with his usual light touch, shows us that one of the turtles is already having selfish second thoughts. The second part finds the two watching the sunset from the top of a rock in the middle of what is now clearly a desert. But while one turtle is thinking of the sunset, the other, when asked, says she's thinking of "nothing." We know that's not true: The white hat is still on her mind. The third and final part - the most dramatic - presents a moral dilemma, a hard-to-resist temptation and a compassionate, lyrical resolution. Klassen, who speaks the language of the picture book like few other authors and illustrators these days, has created a masterpiece of honest feelings, emotional tension and poetic restraint. The digital artwork maintains the warmth and texture of graphite, the colors are subtly alluring, and thankfully, his own repeated reuse of some of the elements is adequately concealed. All this helps the reader feel immersed in a world that might be minimal, but is entirely credible. I wish I could be there! SERGIO RUZZIER is the author and illustrator of picture books including, most recently, "Two Mice" and "This Is Not a Picture Book!"