Grandma's Hat - Hardcover

Kahn, Rosemary; Illustrated By Terry Milne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0744512972 ISBN 13: 9780744512977

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

Grandma's Hat

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

In a book from South Africa, Grandma tells a favorite story about her childhood, when hats were obligatory on Sunday. Her mother had bought a her particularly ugly hat--''it looked just like a potty turned upside down'' and was ``a horrible yellowy- mustard color.'' Fortunately, the family car was a convertible, and Grandma managed to let the hated hat blow away. Her mama was upset, but Papa proved to be silently sympathetic. Later, after the hat was rediscovered on a friend's scarecrow, the whole family joined in the merriment when Papa said, ``no bird would dare come near that dreadful hat!'' It's good to have such a warm family story from a country whose books are rarely represented here. In soft pencil and watercolor, Milne's art nicely evokes the setting in its many details, including Papa's general store (where the book's one black, a wistful-looking child, is seen from the back) and the flat, dusty landscape and utilitarian homes of the Karoo. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- Quiet, gentle prose and softly focused pencil drawings make this title serviceable but do little to distinguish it from the multitude of intergenerational books already on library shelves. Indulging her grandchildren's request for their favorite story, a white-haired, wide-lapped grandmother tells how, as a young girl, she received an ugly new hat that ended up as headgear for a scarecrow. Pale sepia-toned watercolors imbue the rough pencil sketches with a period look, as if one is looking at old photographs while listening to the woman spin her simple yarn. While primary graders will empathize with the young girl's dismay at receiving the dreadful hat and cheerfully delight in its humorous final resting place, this inconsequential tale lacks the substance to make it a story-time staple. --Dorothy Houlihan, formerly at White Plains Public Library, NY
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0744512972
• ISBN 13: 9780744512977
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Terry Milne