Ten Best Children’s Books About Hats

National Hat Day! It is celebrated on January 15^th in the United States, so I want to share with you ten of the best children’s books about hats. Why hats, you ask?

Hats keep us warm. They keep us cool and protect us from the sun. They are great accessories and play a central role in making fashion statements. Hats can be a symbol of hierarchy, defining the rank of a military person or religious authority. Hats can help us identify the role someone plays in society, whether a chef, cowboy or witch, baseball player or pirate. Fancy hats define the Kentucky Derby festivities, the Royal Ascot, and high fashion weddings.

picture of baby with hat - children's books about hats

We recognize Abraham Lincoln by his distinctive stovepipe hat, which added even more height to his six-foot, four inches. Say “Curious George” and the average Baby Boomer will reply “The man in the yellow hat”. Daniel Boone had his coonskin hat, Frank Sinatra his fedora, and Hogwarts, of course, the home of the Sorting Hat.

But I digress.

Kids love to play with hats, and they are key items in pretend play. A five-year-old with a pirate hat and a cutlass is immediately swashbuckling and adventurous; in a police hat, authoritative. And in literature, a hat can stand for so much more as well. And if you have a collection of hats your child can choose the one they want to accompany the book. Read on for the ten best children’s books about hats.

The Ten Best Children’s Books About Hats

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, of course, must be the most well-known hat book of all. On a dreary day, the Cat in the Hat shows up to wreak havoc in the house while mother is away. With familiar rhyming and repetition, Seuss creates shock and dismay at the uninvited visitor’s activities, but all is resolved in the end.

This is Not My Hat

This is Not My Hat, by Caldecott Medal winner Jon Klassen, is a charming book, subtle in both word and sly illustration. We follow a tiny fish with a blue hat, hiding from the giant fish to whom the hat belongs. Tiny fish explains why he should have the hat, and how he will escape the notice of the giant fish. Will he succeed? For visual comedy, watch the eyes. This book is the second of Jon Klassen’s hat books, along with I Want My Hat Back and We Found a Hat.

Old Hat New Hat and Blue Hat, Green Hat

For the youngest children, I like two board books especially, probably because I read them to my children in the 1980s. Old Hat New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain is a vehicle for adjectives, with lots of rhyme and repetition. This was one of the early reading books the kids tolerated.

Sandra Boynton’s Blue Hat, Green Hat, came out in 1984, and features a turkey who can’t seem to wear his clothes properly. The “silly” factor engages younger children while exploring nouns and adjectives.

A Hat For Minerva Louise

A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke, tells the story of an adventurous chicken, who is not content to hunker down in the hen house when winter brings some snow. It’s cold though, and she tries a flower pot for a hat, as well as other incongruous items to keep warm. Finally, she ends up with two “hats” for her head and her tail.

Caps For Sale

Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business, by Esphyr Slobodkina, was published in 1940, and has the simple pictures reminiscent of that era. A peddler is selling caps, neatly stacked on his head. On a slow day he takes a nap under some trees, but when he wakes, his caps have disappeared! It’s monkey business, and by happy accident he gets his caps back again.

The Magic Hat

Slightly older children will enjoy The Magic Hat by Mem Fox. This is a clever rhyming story of a magic hat flying through the air, seeming to land on a person’s head but ending up on an animal instead. Eventually a magician appears, reclaims the hat, and the animals turn back into people.

You Must Bring A Hat!

You Must Bring a Hat by Simon Philip and illustrated by Kate Hindley, starts with a formal invitation to a party, the “Hattiest Party of All Time”, and specifies that all guests must bring a hat. Our hero has no hat but is able to bring a monkey with a hat. When he arrives at the party, he is given other unreasonable requirements for the monkey, manages to get around the quirky rules, and finally discovers he has been trying to get into the wrong party.

Play with hats. Read books.