New Perspective on Wearing Many Hats

Rembrandt’s Hat

Written by Susan Blackaby

Illustrated by Mary Newell DePalma

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002

30 pages

Fantasy

            I chose this book because I liked the title. It sounded like it would be a good book, and I was right.  The book is about a little bear named Rembrandt who loses his favorite hat while at the park one day.  He sets out to find his hat only to run into some funny characters that volunteer to be his hat.  He soon tires of having to deal with the others sitting on his head and finally he goes and finds… Well, I can’t spoil the story for you.

            The illustrations are done in a mixed media and in the informal manner.  There are vignettes and full page illustrations also.  The bear has beautiful blue eyes that look realistic and sad when he loses his hat.  In the illustrations there are little bits of news print in every one.  The use of pastel colors makes this book have a somber feeling to it that lends to the feelings of the bear.

            This book would be good for kindergarten through third grade.  The book is easy to read but has a subject matter that any age will understand.  I would use this book in a character education class to teach children about helping someone even if they are not a close friend.  This book would be good for a math lesson because Rembrandt tries on so many hats, just counting them would be good practice.  Language arts would be good to teach about prediction.  This book has not won any honors at this time.