This is Not My Hat

Jon Klassen is the creator of the 2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book and New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year I Want My Hat Back. He is also the illustrator of Caroline Stutson’s Cats’ Night Out, winner of the prestigious Governor General’s Award for Illustration. Jon Klassen has worked as an illustrator for feature animated films, music videos, and editorial pieces. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, he now lives in Los Angeles, California.

Klassen’s authorial debut, I WANT MY HAT BACK (2011), became one of the surprise picture-book hits of the year, and while it’s tempting to see this follow-up as a sequel, it’s really only related in its hat-theft theme, animal characters, deadpan humor, and a suggestively dark conclusion. . . . The simple, dramatic tension and macabre humor that’s right at a kid’s level of deviousness mesh splendidly with Klassen’s knack for tiny, telling details and knockout page turns. Who knew hat thievery was such a bottomless well?
—Booklist (starred review)

The eyes have it in Klassen’s latest hat book (I WANT MY HAT BACK). Klassen manages to tell almost the whole story through subtle eye movements and the tilt of seaweed and air bubbles. . . Darkly hilarious.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

Simplicity is key in both text and illustrations. The black underwater provides the perfect background for the mostly gray-toned fish and seaweed while the monochromatic palette strips the artwork down to essential, yet exquisite design. Movement is indicated with a trail of small white bubbles. This not-to-be-missed title will delight children again and again.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Klassen excels at using pictures to tell the parts of the story his unreliable narrators omit or evade.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Klassen combines spare text and art to deliver no small measure of laughs in another darkly comic haberdashery whodunit...Hats off!
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

This is, quite simply, an outstanding book—and that ain’t no fish tale.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

Absolutely gorgeous artwork (digitally assembled Chinese ink illustrations) and an utterly original voice in the picture book world.
—Apartment Therapy