This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Klassen, Jon. This Is Not My Hat. Massachusetts, Candlewick Press: 2012. ISBN: 0763655996

2. PLOT SUMMARY

This is the story of a small fish and a big fish. The small fish steals a hat from a big fish who is sleeping. He’s sure the big fish won’t notice it’s gone, that he won’t know who took it if he does notice it’s gone, and won’t be able to find him even if he knows he’s the one who took it. The small fish swims to where the plants grow big and tall and close together, and he is confident no one will ever find him there. He does admit that someone saw him - a small crab - but he is confident the crab won’t tell anyone. However, as soon as he arrives and swims away into the plants, the big fish follows behind him while the crab points him in the right direction. The big fish enters the tall plants and exits with his hat back on his head. The small fish is nowhere to be seen.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

On the very first page of this book, the reader is taken deep inside the ocean and introduced to a small fish who has a hat on his head and one eye looking behind him. As if the guilty look of his eye was not enough, he tells us on the page beside that the hat is not his. He stole it. In fact, he stole it from a big fish. No wonder he is watching so closely behind him. The reader has a sense of doom for this small fish from the very beginning.

The small fish spends the next few pages convincing the reader why it was okay for him to steal the hat. The small fish knows the hat doesn’t belong to him and that it’s wrong to steal, but it was too small for the big fish. It fits him just right. It’s okay to steal it. Anyway, he’s swimming to where the plants are big and tall enough to hide him and no one will ever know - except for the small crab who is quick to betray him and tell exactly where he went. This makes a good attempt at teaching a simple lesson to children (or anyone) who are tempted to steal because no one will ever know. It sends a message that someone will know, and friends will betray you, but to make the right decision even if you think no one will.

The illustrations in this book take the reader into the vast darkness of the ocean. The black background of each illustration serves a few purposes. They allow the foreground images to “pop” off the page and cause the reader to focus in on the characters in the story, they transport the reader into the vast darkness and depth of the ocean, and they point towards the darkness of the small fish’s bad decision. The illustrations in this book tell the story clearly on their own. Jon Klassen even uses each of the fish’s eyes to tell the story of guilt and revenge. A child who is not able to read could grasp the entire message of the story without hearing a word of it.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

2014 Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal

From SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL - “This not-to-be-missed title will delight children again and again.”

From PUBLISHERS’ WEEKLY - “Klassen excels at using pictures to tell the parts of the story his unreliable narrators omit or evade.”

5. CONNECTIONS

Gather other books written by Jon Klassen to read such as:

• I Want My Hat Back. ISBN 0763655988

Gather other books illustrated by Jon Klassen such as:

• Extra Yarn. ISBN 9780061953385
• The Dark. ISBN 0316187488
• House Held Up By Trees. ISBN 0763651079

I read this book over and over with two of my children, ages 7 and 5, and they never got tired of it.

Creative Writing Activity - Jon Klassen doesn’t tell the reader exactly what happens at the end of this book. What do you think happens? Write and illustrate your own ending to the book.

Draw and design a new hat for the small fish so he isn’t tempted to steal the hat from the big fish.