This Is Not My Hat

by Jon Klassen

Tiny thief. Big trouble.

For you if

you want a picture book that trusts kids to sit with moral ambiguity without wrapping it in a bow

⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡

Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.

Buy New on Bookshop.org

Supports independent bookstores

— OR —

Find Used on Better World Books

Secondhand & sustainable

$19 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.

Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat is a sly, darkly funny masterclass in visual storytelling. A tiny fish steals a hat from a very big fish — and then spends the rest of the book insisting everything will be fine. With deadpan narration and expressive, minimalist art, Klassen turns a simple chase into a perfectly crafted morality tale where the pictures tell the truth the narrator won’t. Kids howl, adults smirk, and everyone learns something about consequences (the gentle, sneaky kind).

Where This Book Lives

Themes: crime and consequences unreliable narrator

Same pattern, different era

Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.

The Long Song

Andrea Levy

Jamaica

A formerly enslaved woman tells her story her own way.

✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST

For the family bookshelf

Same idea, written for a younger reader. Good for reading together.

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Jon Scieszka

The wolf tells his side. He just needed sugar.

✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST