This is Not My Hat Review by Dana G. Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Klassen, Jon. This is Not My Hat. Candlewick Press: Somerville, Mass., 2012. 9780763655990

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
A tiny fish steals a hat from a huge fish while he is sleeping. The small fish knows stealing is wrong, and he tells the reader all the reasons he thinks he "deserves" the hat. He also tells the reader how he is going to get away with stealing it. In the end, the big fish finds him and gets his hat back, and the reader knows that nothing good probably happened to the tiny fish when he was caught.

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Learning right from wrong is often a trial and error situation for children. Toddlers and twos may just grab what they want and not understand consequences. While older children may know in their heads what to do, but in their hearts they WANT something, so they lack the self-control to stop themselves from making the bad choices. Jon Klassen's book, This is Not My Hat, shows the unspoken consequences to bad decisions, particularly when you act out against someone who is bigger than you are. 

The setting of this story is in a cold, dark underwater environment illustrated on black pages. In the dark of the sea, no one will probably notice a small fish stealing a larger fish's hat. The morale of the story is that stealing is wrong and has serious repercussions, but the way Klassen chose to write and illustrate the story are both witty and humorous. The story is narrated from the thief's point of view, while the illustrations tell the big fish's point of view -- all through the drawing of just the big fish's eye. Without seeing the words and the illustrations together, the reader would not understand the humor or the inferred viciousness of the ultimate tale of this story. This is the second book in a three-book series of hat-related books by Klassen. His first, I Want My Hat Back, had a similarly comedic ending related to food chain justice. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
This Is Not My Hat was the 2013 Caldecott Award Winner and the 2014 Kate Greenaway Medal winner in Britain. Klassen is the first author/illustrator to win those prizes for the same book. 

From Horn Book
"The eyes have it in Klassen's latest hat book (I Want My Hat Back). Klassen manages to tell almost the whole story through subtle eye movements and the tilt of seaweed and air bubbles..."

From Publisher's Weekly
"Readers hope for the best, but after the big fish darts in, only one of them emerges, sporting the hat. It's no surprise that the dominant color of the spreads is black. Tough times call for tough picture books." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other books about the consequences of making poor decisions or choices:

• Cook, Julia. Ricky Sticky Fingers. ISBN 9781937870089
• Shannon, David. David Gets in Trouble. ISBN 9780439051545
• Viorst, Judith. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. ISBN 9780689711732

More from Jon Klassen: 

• I Want My Hat Back. ISBN 9780763655983
• We Found a Hat. ISBN 9780763656003

Use these book as a great way to discuss the concepts about personal responsibility and how sometimes our hardest days come from making decisions without giving thought to what is right and what is wrong. Children ages 3-8 may have varying ideas about morals and philosophy that they want to put into words. Listening to their reactions and their own personal stories is very important. It's also a great way to teach opposites. If you cover the words and show them the illustrations first, have them tell the story to you. Then when they are able to read the story with the text, they'll see the opposite is true.