Author & Illustrator: Jon Klassen

Publisher: Walker Books

Summary

This bear is on a seemingly simple mission: to find his hat. But when he calmly wanders to find it, his simple question leads to one animal, which leads to another, and so on… while the hat remains mysteriously at large. He meets some truthful creatures, and some not so truthful ones, but nevertheless remains remarkably unruffled. The story doesn’t quite end when the bear’s hat is found– it turns out, bears can dish back the mischief just as swiftly as they're dealt it…

Review

Clever and sly, this book is sure to impress children and adults alike. There is a subtle wit in the bear’s flat affect which winks at the reader and brings us in on the joke. This book is accessible to all ages with its simple, repetitive language and visual comedy. This is one that will certainly be read over and over again…!

Language Facilitation Targets

• WHERE questions

• Negation: NOT in the grass / NOT with the frog / I have NOT seen it

• Inferencing/gathering clues: Is the animal telling the truth? What are the clues in the picture? What is their body language telling you? How does the bear’s response change at the end when asked about the rabbit?

• Inferencing internal thoughts: What changed in the bear’s body/facial expression when he realizes the hat has been missing? Prompt your child to interpret the final scene and then compare it to your own conclusions. Narrate your reasoning out loud, outlining the steps of looking for clues in the pictures, using prior knowledge about the world, and pairing it with what you alreaady know so far about the characters.

• Making predictions: pause the story once the bear realizes what happened to his hat. Prompt your child to predict what the bear might do, and then compare it with the book’s ending.

Other Works

Check out the rest of this series: This Is Not My Hat and We Found a Hat to continue the witty adventure. Jon Klassen has illustrated various other children’s books and has a distinctly playful and comedic illustration style. More can be seen on his website.