We Found A Hat: 03/17/17

We Found A Hat by Jon Klassen is the third of the hat books (I Want My Hat Back and This is Not My Hat).

The first book is about a hat being stolen and revenge taken. The second book is a caper about hat stealer. Now we have a lonely hat in the dessert and two tortoises who both desire the hat as it's the only different thing in their immediate universe.

Klassen's hat books have always taken me on mental tangents. Dessert tortoises immediately make me think of the initial interview in Bladerunner: "You see a tortoise in the dessert—" which of course ends up with the now flustered replicant killing the HR guy.

The ten gallon hat, though, got me to thinking about one of my favorite country songs: "Me and My Uncle." Tortoises also lead me to the Parry Gripp song, "Turtle" (as in "Dude, that's a tortoise!")

And turtles getting into fights takes me to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Except instead of their usual color coded ninja gear, it's just a pair of them in cowboy gear having a duel to see who gets the hat.

None of this actually happens. All that build up of drama and angst — the promise of violence doesn't come to fruition. They are, after all, friends. No ten gallon hat, no matter how awesome it may be, will come between these two tortoise buddies.

Four stars

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