The Quangle Wangle's Hat

The Quangle Wangle shares his enormous hat with a multiplying cast of peculiar creatures in this silly, singsong tale from the celebrated author of THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT.
On the top of the Crumpetty TreeThe Quangle Wangle sat, But his face you could not see, On account of his Beaver Hat.Poor Quangle Wangle. Life can get pretty lonely beneath a hat that's a hundred and two feet wide. But then along come Mr. and Mrs. Canary, who ask, "May we build a nest on your lovely Hat?" Following close behind are the Stork, the Duck, and the Owl, the Frog and the Fimble Fowl, the Pobble who has no toes, the Dong with a luminous nose. . . . Only classic nonsense poet Edward Lear could create such an odd and amiable crew -- enticingly rendered by Louise Voce in the most vivid of hues.

PreSchool--Grade 3-- Stevens uses Lear's nonsense verse to display her fresh imagination and humor in this lively picture book. The Quangle Wangle Quee is a tree-dwelling creature obscured by an enormous beribboned hat. He is lonely, but not for long: a procession of animals (some real, some imaginary) discover him, seeing the hat as a possible home. A pair of canaries are the first to arrive, saying, "May we build a nest on your lovely Hat? Mr. Quangle Wangle, grant us that!" By the end of the book, the hat is more built up than one would believe possible, with sheds, nests, shacks, mailboxes, TV antennae, pots of geraniums, and clotheslines. The poem itself is not one of Lear's best works, for the rhythm is not as suited to reading aloud as, for example, "The Jumblies" or "The Owl and the Pussycat." Yet Stevens' use of inventive detail and deadpan silliness is as delightful as it was in her version of The Three Billygoats Gruff (HBJ, 1987). The unkempt and chaotic quality of the illustrations suits both the cumulative and fanciful natures of the poem. --Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, Ill.
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