Something bear-y wonderful here, readers! I had the chance, thanks to the kind and generous folks at Penguin Random House Canada/Candlewick Press, to take a look and pore over (and re-read!) the new boxed set featuring the hat trilogy from award-winning Canadian author and artist Jon Klassen. A boxed set containing: hardcover copies of I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, We Found a Hat, a ‘free frameable print’, all in a sleek and beautifully designed box, Jon Klassen’s Hat Box is pretty fabulous and special.

Hold on to all of your hats at once for this special collection of Jon Klassen’s celebrated hat trilogy.

The bear’s hat is gone, and he wants it back. A fish has stolen a hat; will he get away with it? Two turtles have found one hat, but the hat looks good on both of them. . . . Jon Klassen’s deliciously deadpan hat tales continue to surprise and delight readers of all ages, and they are all now available in one impeccably designed boxed set along with a free frameable print. Included are:

I Want My Hat Back
This Is Not My Hat
We Found a Hat

I know it’s wrong to steal a hat.
I know it does not belong to me.
But I am going to keep it.

I have talked about my love of Jon Klassen‘s hat trilogy titles before, so I won’t rehash all of my review thoughts here, but it does bear (hehe) repeating that this trilogy is sublime. A course in picture book excellence. In my role as a librarian, I have been reading the books in this series at library and school storytimes from around the time the massively successful- and breakout- first book (I Want My Hat Back) released. Since becoming a mom, I have also been regularly reading the titles in the series with my oldest (who is now five, and continues to be a MAJOR Klassen book enthusiast!). The hat series never fails to delight my daughter and I each and every time we open the books up: we do not tire of the characters, the surprises, the reveals, the dark turns, and the humour.

Upon this latest re-read of the entire trilogy, I found myself captivating even more by the visual comedy and confessional nature of This Is Not My Hat, as well as in the play-like set-up and staging of We Found a Hat. This might just be my sense of it, but I do feel as though We Found a Hat, the conclusion in the hat trilogy, gets a wee bit lost in the vibrancy and astonishment of the first two titles. We Found a Hat– featuring two shifty-eyed turtles- seems to grows and deepen upon re-read. It has more dialogue and banter than book two, a more meandering, tender feel than book one…and culminates in a grande finale that truly does bring the entire series beautifully, fittingly together.

The three hat books are perennial read aloud favourites at preschool-and-up storytimes. Their establishment (as well as Klassen’s) as children’s literature staples and examples of excellence will ensure their longevity and popularity. Oh, and may I mention again that Klassen’s subversive, deeply funny storytelling and immediately recognizable artwork is brilliant? If you are a fan of the hat trilogy, or wish to surprise a Jon Klassen fan (young or old!) with a very special bookish treat for the holidays, then Jon Klassen’s Hat Box is a superb pick.

I received a copy of this boxed set courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada/Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and comments are my own.