3/16/2023 0 Comments Shifty look![]() ![]() It's a feeling about their friendship that leads to a transcendent little ending as the greedy turtle sacrifices the hat to be with his friend. For want of a better word, the ~vibe~ is the most remarkable thing about the scene, washed-out pinks and peaches fading to grey with a texture that calls to mind the post-dusk moment when your vision turns into flickering TV snow. A new chapter, "Watching the Sunset," consists of the turtles sitting together on a rock, pondering their relationship. Having almost abandoned the project - "I felt like 'I killed it,'" he recalls - a year later he stumbled on a solution. ![]() "I was so bummed out by the failure of the that I couldn't figure out, that the mood almost reflects that." "The book I was trying to figure out was much darker," Klassen recalls, "the natural conclusion of that series." And the final product feels "almost like a funeral" for the original characters and idea. Originally, the book ended with both characters dying, and the hat being the only thing left. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA. Solving the dissonance between the pictures and the words helps children to learn theory of mind, she explains. Many hyperlexic kids with ASD will read the words, and close the book and say 'done!' But they can't answer questions like 'what was it about?' Or 'why did the character make that choice?' Or 'what might he be thinking on this page?'" "That book is just so perfect for kindergarten, especially kids with a social disability like ASD) because if you only read the text, you basically miss the whole story. It's just so sweet and beautiful," says special-education teacher Rachel Shukan, who uses the book in class. "I literally get goosebumps every time I turn to that last page where both turtles are floating away into space wearing hats. After a dark night of the soul, one turtle realizes that the friendship is more important to him than the hat: the book ends with both turtles dreaming of themselves together in hats against a quilt of stars. The plot of the third "hat" story, about two turtles who find a hat and are unable to share it, required a year-long break to solve. I think the 'shape' trilogy is really a great example of that." "Pinter for preschoolers." - Pantelis, GoodReads user It's his fault for not being clear enough, relatable enough. ![]() If an idea doesn't work, it's not other people's fault for not getting it. "He's guided by this big desire to make work that is understandable and clear and simple," author and illustrator Hallie Bateman tells Romper by email. (Barnett deserves his own profile Klassen describes his friend as a linguistic genius).Īnd the sheer popularity of his work - there are millions of copies of the "hat" books in circulation - suggests that the *message*, as it were, does resonate with parents and children alike. The book deals with Square's fear of being found out as an imposter ("Oh dirt!" he cries as he struggles to fake it as a sculptor, chipping a block into crumbs), and has the inky look and shifty eyes™ that define a Klassen illustration, along with the playfulness of Barnett's writing. His latest book, Square, is another collaboration with friend and author Mac Barnett, and the second of the books in the "shapes" trilogy after Triangle. There are fans with tattoos of his characters, sold-out tapestries of art from his books, internet memes: Jon Klassen is a serious mood. These books are beloved by kids, parents, and the child-free alike. Each could be a fable for parenthood, where nothing is ever quite fair or rational, and where a selfish piece of you just wants to sit on the straw with your hat eating rabbit. A bear goes searching for his pointy red hat, and eats the rabbit who took it and then lied about it. His plots, well, have a theme.Ī fish steals a hat that is a better fit on him than on the large fish he stole it from: he is eaten. The third book in a trilogy by author and illustrator Jon Klassen, it was the first not to end with one animal eating another. "Significantly less murder than I was expecting," wrote GoodReads user Anna Smithberger in a review of the children's picture book We Found A Hat. ![]()
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