In a three-story house with a shop down below, lived the world's finest hat maker, Madame Chapeau. Like the Lady herself, all her hats were refined. Brilliantly singular. One of a kind. So begins Andrea Beaty's new rhyming picture book about a hat maker adored by her friends and neighbours. On her birthday, Madame Chapeau wears the perfect bonnet made by her late husband. But on the way to her birthday dinner, a crow snatches her hat and flies away with it, leaving Mme. Chapeau sans bonnet. As she chases the crow, everyone around her begins to follow her, offering their own hats for her to wear. None of them are quite right for Madame Chapeau, though, until one special little girl offers her a hat "knitted with love and [her] best birthday wish." What appears "rather odd" to Mme Chapeau at first is actually the perfect gift for her. A delightful story about love, community and friendship, with some fancy hats and a birthday thrown in for good measure.

 

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2014 by Abrams .

Andrea Beaty is a talented newcomer with two books under contract at Abrams. She lives near Chicago.