Hat On, Hat Off

In my experience, young children love clothing. They love shoes (on and off), they love hats (on and off) and, most of all, they love underwear (on and off). Woefully few board books understand what clothing represents in children’s lives. Children are often allowed to choose elements of their clothing: freedom! Children learn to put different pieces of clothing on themselves: autonomy! Children express themselves in selecting clothing’s patterns, textures and prints: identity! Children wear beloved clothing over and over: love!

Here is book that understands. In Theo Heras’ Hat On, Hat Off, illustrated by Renné Benoit, a young child and his sister are trying to get outside, but he needs a hat. What follows is a highly relatable series of interruptions as the siblings eventually make their way out the door. In the process, the hat is put on, taken off, switched out, and put on again several times. This is a great book for toddlers. The illustrations sweetly invoke the textures of clothing itself. Pages that feature zoomed-in illustrations of knit textiles are particularly well done. It is fun to seek out the clothing that appears both close-up and at a distance (e.g. green knit fabric up close, bunny’s knit hat at a distance).

The sparse text in Heras’ work, anchored around putting on and taking off, is conceptually wonderful. Unfortunately, there is something slightly awkward in the pacing and phrasing, making the book a little difficult to read aloud. A deeper attention to the spoken rhythm of the text would have alleviated this greatly. As it stands, Hat On, Hat Off remains an important board book that empathizes with the lived experiences of young children who get dressed every single day.