A young girl hangs her newly-washed red hat on the clothesline to dry in this mostly wordless picture-book from author/artist Lita Judge, and a bear cub soon absconds with it. Mayhem ensues, as various other woodland animals attempt to snatch at the hat, which eventually unravels. Mama Bear is unimpressed, and demands that her cub return the hat - now nothing but unraveled yarn. Fortunately, the girl knows just what to do, not only about her hat, but about the animals...

Like its predecessor, Red Sled, which also features a human object that is borrowed by a bear and various other animals, Red Hat is a sweet picture-book romp, one that relies entirely upon onomatopoeia and the accompanying pencil and watercolor artwork to tell the story. I can't say I found this one quite as appealing as the first, but I do think those who are looking for wordless (or mostly wordless) narratives will enjoy it, as will fans of Judge's artwork. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this short wordless picture book. In my opinion the book was drawn out without the greatest story to tell. The characters in the novel however were very cute and the illustrations for them were quite engaging. The plot is my only problem with the book. I felt as though it was not well paced and that because of this, it was not so entertaining to read. While I did have this quarrel, I felt that the story was cute for showing readers how to forgive forgets when they wrong you. In the story, a bunch of animals steal a read hat and by the time they return it to its owner, it has turned into a long strand of string. Instead of becoming angry, the young owner simply knits himself a new hat and also knits his furry friends some garnments as well. The story is made quite clear thanks to its illustrations. ( )

This is a wordless picture book that shows the journey of animals that borrow a red hat from a young boy. By the end of their journey, all that's left of the hat is a red string. When they return the disassembled hat, the boy is not mad and simply makes red hats for all of them. I liked this book for two reasons. First, the illustrations enhance the story. Since there are no words, except for the occasional onomatopoeia, the reader has to rely on the pictures to tell the story. The facial expressions and movement of the animals throughout the story do an amazing job of expressing what the animals are feeling. For instance, at one point the mouse is hanging onto the end of the red string with his mouth and eyes wide open. This shows that the mouse is scared and/or worried. Second, the plot is well organized and suspenseful. For instance, as each animal is introduced, the string coming off of the red hat gets longer and longer. The big idea of this book is to value friendship, not materialistic things. ( )

A little girl hangs a red hat on a clothesline to dry. Animals delightfully play with the hat until it ends up as an unraveled string. The animals return the hat . The little girl is puzzled but creatively knits the hat back together and a few more for her friends.

This almost wordless picture book was very intriguing to me. The message of this book was not explicitly told because the author wanted the readers to figure it out on their own. Judge wanted her audience to use their imagination and come up with their own interpretation of the story. I also enjoyed the onomatopoeia words the author used such as "hiii-ya!" and "yoo-ha!" By adding these few words to the story, allowed the audience to connect pictures and sounds together. ( )