Hello, I'm Richard Nimz, prospector of the written word and literary explorer extraordinaire. For this post and the next, I'm delving into a special kind of classic book: the winners of the Randolph Caldecott Medal. These books have been deemed the best the year had to offer in terms of artistic talent, and this next one has a very distinct style reminiscent of the never-even-nominated Eric Carle. It's This is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen, winner in 2013.
Citation: Klassen, Jon (2012). This is Not My Hat. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.
Summary: The book is about a little fish who's stolen the hat off of a much bigger fish. More specifically, it's about how the big fish finds the little fish in spite of the little fish's claims that he won't be caught. In the end, the big fish gets his hat back (and the little fish seems to have vanished).
Impressions: I liked this book. While the book could have just said that stealing something is wrong, this book shows that the thief relied on things being a certain way (which they weren't in the end), also making this book about actually making plans rather than just depending on things being a certain way and presuming that everything will turn out in your favor. However, Roger Sutton appears to have read a little more into it. According to him, "given that children’s literature champions the small and the weak, there is also this [moral]: Don’t get caught. Depending on where you are on the political spectrum, “This Is Not My Hat” could be a cautionary tale of either righteous class struggle or uppity proletarians." Regardless of interpretation, however, I liked the cutout style of art and found the color palette to be very suiting for the story. Basically, this is good, and I advise checking it out.
Sources:
Sutton, Roger (9 Nov, 2012). 'Little Tug' and 'This is Not My Hat' - NYTimes.com. The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/books/review/little-tug-and-this-is-not-my-hat.html?_r=0
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