Fuse 8 n’ Kate: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

We have a good good rule here at Fuse 8 n’ Kate. My sister and I do not judge any picture book that younger than 20 years of age. And with today’s episode, I broke that rule. I broke it hard. Clocking in at a mere 8 years of age, it’s a bit premature to consider Klassen’s best known title as a “classic” picture book or not. And yet, I could not help myself. We’ve never done a Klassen and if you say “Klassen” fast enough it sounds like the word “classic”. Good enough for me!! In the course of things we discuss the fact that this book is essentially a school play, the speed of a bear, and the likelihood that the rabbit is, in fact, under the bear at the story’s end.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Kate’s Tattoo. Though, as she points out, while he may look snarky, but the book reveals that he’s just the sweetest fellow.

We like to call these the Agatha Christie endpapers. Here are the suspects. Who has the hat?

Gentle readers, we ask you this: What is this animal? Who out there is Team Armadillo and who is Team Opossum?

Redrum. Redrum.

For the record, I love how vibrant this red is. Even in this photo it just pops so beautifully.

This is what I’ve deemed the book’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly moment. Sans Ugly, of course.

The broken plants. I kind of like Kate’s theory that he’s currently sitting on the rabbit. Squishing the rabbit as we speak.

Here’s what you can show kids who worry about the rabbit’s fate. First, you can see both animals, living, on the back endpapers (and the bear is wearing the hat, so you know it’s after the events of the story). . .

. . . and then there were these yahoos in Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett.

This book came in at #74 on the Top 100 picture book poll.

Then there were LOTS of memes of this book out there.

Here is the Re-Seussification Project I alluded to, where Dan Santat redid The Cat in the Hat in the style of Jon Klassen.

Turns out the Remember Reading podcast mentioned us because I was a guest. I spoke on the episode about the beauty of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Remember when Kate mentioned the Severus Snape song? You can listen to it here:

And I found the comics that show Dumbledore as a jerk. Good stuff.

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