The dialogue of I Want My Hat Back is not complex, which makes it easy for readers to follow along and engage with when read aloud. This major switch in color becomes useful as it allows the reader to make the connection before bear does. When the bear realizes they know who the culprit is, bear’s background becomes red. When bear comes across his hat, the text color is no longer grey like the other animals’ words were, but, instead, are now a bold red (Klassen, 2011).
The use of muted colors allows the red to play a major role in the storytelling. Klassen also uses text colors to differentiate between the characters’ dialogue. This minimalist approach to the pictures allows for young readers to not get too distracted by the pictures, instead allowing them to focus more on the story being told. The illustrations are simple with whitespace used to allow the beautiful illustrations to speak for themselves. The colors are muted across a palette of browns, beige, and red. Unlike some children’s books that illustrate animals with humanistic qualities and characteristics, Klassen’s characters maintain their animalistic characteristics that are drawn with deadpan expressions. Klassen’s illustrations for I Want My Hat Back help to tell this enjoyable slow burn of a book. By the end of the quest, we are left with a humorously dark ending that offers kids a difficult but understandable lesson about the conscience. The story moves at a reasonable pace that helps to build suspense without losing the audience’s attention. Readers are invited to use context clues when Bear encounters a standoffish rabbit who responds to the bear’s questions only by asking, “Why are you asking me?” (Klassen, 2011). On this quest, we are introduced to various woodland animals, each who offers polite responses to the bear’s queries about whether they have seen his red hat. The quest draws in young readers as they, too, know the feeling of losing an item and eagerly wanting it back. From the start of the book, the bear lets the reader know about the quest they are about to embark upon. The plot for I Want My Hat Back is simple and easy for young readers to follow. I loved Klassen’s book, Extra Yarn and wanted to read another of his works.
I chose this book because it was featured on the 2012 Texas 2×2 book list, which recommends books that pique the interest of young readers aged 2 to 2nd grade. In the children’s picture book I Want My Hat Back, author and illustrator Jon Klassen shares the story of a bear who is on a mission to find his beloved red hat.
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