2015 Missouri Building Block: Hooray for Hat!

Hooray for Hat bookHooray for Hat!” is a fun, brightly colored picture book that follows animal friends as they go from being grumpy to being happy, all thanks to wonderful hats! The simple text and the animals’ facial expressions let us clearly know the animals’ moods throughout the book. Brian Won, both the illustrator and author, begins the book with a gray elephant waking up grumpy. What will change his mood!? Why, a stack of fun hats of course! Elephant then wants to show his friends his hats and share the joy.

As a gal who hosts lots of story times, I think this book is fantastic! It’s perfect as a read-aloud, boasting large bright illustrations, simple text and the message that it’s the little things in life that can brighten a grumpy mood.

Activity:

This book brings up the great opportunity to talk with your kiddos about emotions and what they look like expressed on our faces. A good way to do this is to create emotion masks. Draw a face on a paper plate. You can make happy faces, sad faces, angry faces, scared faces or any other emotion you would prefer to focus on. Next, glue or tape a popsicle stick to the bottom of the plate. Talk with your child about the emotions expressed on the paper plates, and see if they can make the same face.

The Hat bookOther books about hats:

The Hat” by Jan Brett

I Want My Hat Back” by Jon Klassen

Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina

Remember to help your child vote for his or her favorite Missouri Building Block Picture Book after you have read five or more titles.