I Want My Hat Back

Jon Klassen tells the entire story of a missing hat in dialogue.  Reminiscent of the classic Are You My Mother?, the bear asks everyone in the animal kingdom “Have you seen my hat?”  Yet this bear doesn’t recognize his hat even when it is on the rabbit’s head. He accepts the rabbit’s lie, and later, when the aha moment strikes, the bear beats the rabbit at his own game.  I won’t tell you how, because the twist ending is part of the pleasure of reading the book for the first time.  However, repeated reading reveal the nuances and layers of humour.  Consider this excerpt:

Have you seen my hat?

     What is a hat?

     Thank you anyway.

The spot-on illustrations provide subtext and made me love the bear, even if he is big and bad.