Rating: ***** 5 stars

Satoshi Kitamura,
Millie's Marvellous Hat
Andersen, 2009.

Ages 5-8

On her walk home from school, Millie comes upon a hat shop window and is particularly attracted by a colourful, feathered hat. Desiring to purchase same, she enters, tries it, loves it and determines its price. But, five hundred and ninety-nine pounds, ninety-nine pence is beyond her means: what in fact can she get with an empty purse? Well, that all depends upon an imaginative response from the shop-keeper and the power of her own imagination. Then of course, it also depends on where and with whom Millie happens to be.

Told in deadpan style, this is a wonderfully ‘opening-up’ kind of book that is full of potential for talking, wondering, writing and creating in two and three dimensions. Kitamura’s distinctive illustrations, with their use of crooked lines and quirky angular perspectives are, as always, fascinating and compelling.

Jill Bennett