The Hat

A delightfully original companion book to Jan Brett's bestseller The Mitten.

When Lisa's woolen stocking flies off the clothesline, Hedgie finds it and pokes his nose in. He tries to pull it out, but the stocking gets stuck on his prickles -- and the fun begins.

A mother hen comes by, then a noisy goose, a talkative barn cat, a playful farm dog, a mama pig and her piglets, and a pony. They all laugh at Hedgie, especially when he pretends he's wearing a new hat. But in the end, it is clever Hedgie who has the last laugh.

And where is Lisa when all of this is going on? She's in Jan Brett's signature borders, getting ready for winter, until she realizes her stocking is missing and she enters the story to look for it.

Luminous paintings of a Scandinavian farm and the forest around it are bathed in northern light, as the snow begins to fall and the adventure unfolds.

Author: Jan Brett
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Published: 09/29/1997
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.79lbs
Size: 8.68h x 10.58w x 0.36d
ISBN: 9780399231018
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 2.6
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 26639 / Hat


Award: Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Winner
Award: Bookseller's Choice - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/02/1997 pg. 71
Kirkus Review - Children 07/01/1997 pg. 1027
Booklist 09/01/1997 pg. 116
School Library Journal 09/01/1997 pg. 173
New York Times 02/15/1998 pg. 25
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/1997 pg. 23 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author
With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."

As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says. "I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting."

Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."