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This Is the Hat: A Story in Rhyme
Cumulative verses follow an old man's hat as it becomes a home for a spider, mouse, and other creatures before returning to its rightful owner
- GenresPicture Books
32 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1992
About the author
Nancy Van Laan
41 books20 followersNancy Van Laan was born in Baton Rouge, La. Her father was a colonel in the US Air Force, and the family moved frequently as Van Laan was growing up. She began making up stories to pass the time on long car trips. Although Van Laan had a learning disability, she loved to read. She began drawing and writing poetry as a child and enjoyed illustrating her own stories. Van Laan also loved ballet and began taking lessons at the age of nine. By age seventeen, she had her own ballet company in Birmingham that performed on a weekly program broadcast on Alabama Educational TV (now Alabama Public Television). Van Laan’s dancing career ended after an injury she sustained as a student at Sullins College in Bristol, Va. After completing her AA degree at Sullins, she enrolled at the University of Alabama, earning her BA in radio and television in 1961.
Van Laan moved to New York after college. She worked briefly at an advertising company and then joined ABC-TV where she worked as a network censor from 1962 to 1966. Van Laan began writing at this time and also studied art. After her first two children were born, she resigned from ABC and began painting professionally, creating murals for schools and private clients. She earned an MFA in theater from Rutgers University in 1979 and wrote two plays which were performed regionally. Van Laan moved to eastern Pennsylvania where she taught English at a private boarding school from 1984 to 1989. She also taught creative writing at Rutgers from 1986 to 1989. Van Laan published her first book, The Big Fat Worm, in 1987. Two years later, she left teaching to write full time. Since then, Van Laan has published over two dozen books. One of these, Rainbow Crow, was featured on the PBS television series Reading Rainbow. Van Laan lives and writes in Doylestown, Pa.
Van Laan moved to New York after college. She worked briefly at an advertising company and then joined ABC-TV where she worked as a network censor from 1962 to 1966. Van Laan began writing at this time and also studied art. After her first two children were born, she resigned from ABC and began painting professionally, creating murals for schools and private clients. She earned an MFA in theater from Rutgers University in 1979 and wrote two plays which were performed regionally. Van Laan moved to eastern Pennsylvania where she taught English at a private boarding school from 1984 to 1989. She also taught creative writing at Rutgers from 1986 to 1989. Van Laan published her first book, The Big Fat Worm, in 1987. Two years later, she left teaching to write full time. Since then, Van Laan has published over two dozen books. One of these, Rainbow Crow, was featured on the PBS television series Reading Rainbow. Van Laan lives and writes in Doylestown, Pa.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 8, 2023
Copyrighted in 1992 this is an excellent title with a lively rhyming text about a hat blown by the wind and all the creatures both human and animal who encounter the hat and make use of it. Will the hat ever return to the old man who owned it?
Super colorful illustrations by Holly Meade that appear to be made of paper collage. Holly Meade later won a Caldecott honor medal for Hush, a Thai Lullaby. I have read a couple other titles of her and am going to read more that Holly has illustrated.
Interesting the Goodreads bio of the author states that Nancy Van Laan has a learning disability, but she obviously has a gift for storytelling.
Super colorful illustrations by Holly Meade that appear to be made of paper collage. Holly Meade later won a Caldecott honor medal for Hush, a Thai Lullaby. I have read a couple other titles of her and am going to read more that Holly has illustrated.
Interesting the Goodreads bio of the author states that Nancy Van Laan has a learning disability, but she obviously has a gift for storytelling.
October 7, 2008
Genre: Poetry/Rhyme
Awards: none
This is the Hat is a rhyming story that tells the journey of one man's hat. It begins when an old man puts on his hat to go for a walk. The wind scoops his hat off and it flies away. Next, a spider finds it and decides to build its web in it. From here, the hat is taken over by a mouse, then a farmer finds it, and a scarecrow wears it. The hat travels in and out of the hands of a number of different characters until finally it ends up right in front of the old man returning from his walk. The man is thrilled to have his hat back and he decides to dance a jig!
Activities:
1. This book is great for sequencing. It helps students understand that one thing happens to another. To expand on this, students could create a few more places for the hat to travel to before making its way back to the old man.
2. There are a lot of different sounds that happen through out the book. Students could each have an instrument that represents a sound in the book. When the teacher comes to the part in the story where the sound is made, the students with that instrument would play it. This would help keep students actively involved in the reading.
Awards: none
This is the Hat is a rhyming story that tells the journey of one man's hat. It begins when an old man puts on his hat to go for a walk. The wind scoops his hat off and it flies away. Next, a spider finds it and decides to build its web in it. From here, the hat is taken over by a mouse, then a farmer finds it, and a scarecrow wears it. The hat travels in and out of the hands of a number of different characters until finally it ends up right in front of the old man returning from his walk. The man is thrilled to have his hat back and he decides to dance a jig!
Activities:
1. This book is great for sequencing. It helps students understand that one thing happens to another. To expand on this, students could create a few more places for the hat to travel to before making its way back to the old man.
2. There are a lot of different sounds that happen through out the book. Students could each have an instrument that represents a sound in the book. When the teacher comes to the part in the story where the sound is made, the students with that instrument would play it. This would help keep students actively involved in the reading.
December 7, 2011
A man loses his hat to the wind and it is quickly inhabited by a spider. Then a mouse scares the spider away. Then a farmer picks up the hat for his scarecrow...and so on and so forth until the hat finds its' way back to the original owner.
July 30, 2009
Way too young for the K-5 group. And I could not get the rhtyhm of this rhyme book. Interesting to follow the hat's journey, but I wasn't that entralled by the book in general.
September 29, 2014
Written as a story in rhyme and complete with sound effects, this is the story of one hat’s journey home after being blown from the head of it’s owner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews