Age 3-6
Satoshi Kitamura often illustrates picture books (such as In the Attic or Once Upon an Ordinary School Day) that celebrate children’s imagination. This latest, for which he also wrote the text, is not only about the joy of imagining, but about recognising that other people have their own imaginative inner lives. Millie wants to buy an expensive hat, but has no money, so the salesman gives her an invisible one that can be whatever she imagines. Her hat expresses her thoughts. Then she realises that other people have hats that express theirs. This book is ideal for young children, because so much is in the illustrations — with clear details executed in Kitamura’s skilled, bold, angular ink line — which reveal what preoccupies all the characters. Children can imagine their own hats, or other people’s — and even draw them. The book takes you on a sunny walk through streets, parks and interiors, and leads you to empathise, to learn that you might affect other people’s moods, and to appreciate individuality.

Millie’s Marvellous Hat by Satoshi Kitamura
Andersen Press £10.99

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