A few years ago one of my best friends (a teacher) gave me Miss Hunnicutt’s Hat by Jeff Brumbeau for a birthday gift. Now, why would an adult (even a teacher!) give another adult a picture book? Well, when your maiden name is Hunnicutt and someone happens to write a book about a character with that same name, you just gotta get it!
But even if this book didn’t bear my maiden name, I’d still love it forever! My kids ask to read this book often and laugh through the whole thing.
The illustrations are those super detailed there’s-more-going-on-in-the-pictures-than-in-the-text. And the story has such great dialogue and action, that you’ll laugh the whole time. It’s about a sweet, normally passive woman named Miss Hunnicutt who decides to wear her new hat from Paris. This new hat has ribbons, felt and…a live chicken on top!
Her fellow townspeople are not excited she chose to wear this outlandish hat on the same day the Queen is coming to visit their little town. But are they ever in for a surprise when the Queen arrives wearing her own new hat from Paris!
We decided to make our own animal hats like Miss Hunnicutt. I cut out some paper hat shapes, ribbon shapes, and flowers to match the descriptions in the book. Then I googled “free cute animal clipart” to add to our hats.
The kids had so much fun recreating Miss Hunnicutt and the Queen’s hats…and then making their own lovely creations!
Of course, no story time with Miss Hunnicutt would be complete without real hats with animals on them. We tied every stuffed animal in our playroom onto our favorite hats and put on a fashion show even the Queen would be proud of!
What would you wear on your hat? (Mine would have a koala!)
