FLEETING FASHIONS

All Harbet wants is to enjoy his Nana’s cozy, hand-knitted hat in peace. But everywhere he goes there’s a constant exasperating bleating from trend-followers about his “old hat.” So Harbet decides to get a new hat. That will stop the teasing, right?

Except the thing to know about following fashion is that trends are fleeting. Once favored flamboyant fruit cocktail hats are swiftly bulldozed by flashy flashing safety cone hats, which are then overtaken by a vogue fleet of naval ship hats, and so on and so forth. And despite all his most determined efforts, Harbet can’t seem to get ahead of the trends or escape the taunts of “old hat.”

Finally, Harbet decides on something absolutely revolutionary, and with that learns an important lesson about being true to oneself that will never go out of style.

Prolific author-illustrator Emily Gravett is an old hand (though not by any means an Old Hat) when it comes to creating gentle-humored fan favorite picture books. For more modish hat reads see this earlier review of Brian Won’s Hooray for Hat! (What can I say? I like hats.)

Ages 4+