My 3 year old daughter loved The Smart Hat from Cath Jones and Paul Nicholls! Even though it is an early reader, I read it as if it were a picture book. She told me that the end was her favourite bit because it was funny!
Indeed, the story is really quirky.
When the Queen is expecting a smart hat to arrive in the post, and an owl arrives… the Queen is bitterly disappointed. But Owl is perfectly happy to be a hat for the Queen and it soon has everyone admiring the new fashion of Owl hats!
I imagine that children who are reading this themselves, will really enjoy the story. Having worked in schools myself and sat with children listening to them read, I know only too well that some of the stories in early readers can be lacking. Not The Smart Hat – it has the plot of a picture book story, but told in a small number of easy to read words.
Paul Nicholls’s illustrations are bright, fun and colourful. I especially like the night time pictures with all the nocturnal animals, with the beautiful night sky.
The Early Reader has a focus of the ‘ow’ and ‘oo’ phonemes. The book is graded as Blue band on Maverick’s Book Band scale. There is a great quiz at the end of The Smart Hat, to help promote discussion of what happened in the story.
Thanks for reviewing The Smart Hat and for all your lovely words Emily! I really enjoyed writing this story. It’s so great knowing that kids are finding my stories funny!