Thursday, January 7, 2016

Jan Brett's The Hat

This is a sad and shocking admission, but I am not as crazy about Jan Brett as I feel I should be. The combination of hedgehogs, Scandinavia, and the illustrated manuscript format seems infallible. Yet, somehow I always feel guilty after reading one of her books--I sort of wanted it to be over a lot sooner than it was. But I still pick up her books because I feel like at some point in my life, I will suddenly love them. Or maybe I will suddenly love one of her books as I should and then will want to own them all. 


This book is one of the cuter ones I think. A little hedgehog gets a sock stuck on his head, so tries to convince everyone he meets that he actually meant to wear the sock. 


See?!? How is it possible that I am not crazy about this book? The clothesline, the winter woolies, the little girl reaching up, the tundra.... 



At the end, poor Lisa's entire clothesline is pinched by the animals as they all frolic away in their magnificent hats. 

The pictures are fantastic. But somehow, the words seem a bit... well, flat. Seeing as Jan Brett is one of the most successful children's book author/illustrators, a large portion of America clearly thinks she is doing something right. I am in the small minority. So don't hold it against me if you adore her books. We can still be friends. And  you can teach me how marvelous her books are!

3 comments:

  1. The illustrations are beautiful, and I can see how this book would be appealing to any child. One can always makeup their own story and put words in. I always did, when I felt something more was needed.

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  2. See? I just need to be more creative. If there are words on the page, that is what I read. I remember Dad reading books to us as kids. If he though the story was too wordy or weird, he made his own story up. Very silly and outrageous things happened in Dad's stories.

    ReplyDelete
  3. See? I just need to be more creative. If there are words on the page, that is what I read. I remember Dad reading books to us as kids. If he though the story was too wordy or weird, he made his own story up. Very silly and outrageous things happened in Dad's stories.

    ReplyDelete