A hat, flippy and floppy and perfectly sloppy, discovered during the beach season soon becomes a young girl's favorite accessory. Though her mother says it's only good for summertime, the girl insists otherwise. And so, with a bit of craftiness, she transforms the hat each season: it becomes a witchy hat for Halloween, a Valentine adornment, an Easter bonnet, and the finishing touch to a scarecrow, until one day a gust of wind blows it away. But was it really the hat itself that was so special, or the ingenuity of its wearer? This testament to creativity is something of a scrapbook itself, using a variety of mediums (from graphite and ink to cut paper and thread) to create a flurry of dress up and crafts. The movement of time is clearly depicted through the changing of seasons-there's a swirl of leaves and Halloween decorations as fall comes, and an eclectic wintery mix splashes across the page at Christmastime. Multicultural characters and the rhythmic, repetitious phrases make this an excellent pick for read-alouds.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2015 Booklist

K-Gr 2-A young girl has a favorite beach hat that she can't bear to part with at summer's end. Her mother lets her keep it out of storage and is amazed by her daughter's creative flair as she keeps the hat fresh throughout the year. Halloween, Christmas, and a birthday celebration are a sample of the special occasions in which the embellished hat plays an important part. The energetic and engaging illustrations, created using graphite, cut paper, watercolor, crayon, and PhotoShop, invite perusal. As she did in I Had a Favorite Dress (Abrams, 2011), Ashburn plays with rhyming words: "With a little of this. and a little of that. my hat makes a divine little valentine!" VERDICT Children will enjoy the idea of taking a hat and-with a little tape, ribbon, and ingenuity-decorating it to help celebrate important days.-Maryann H. Owen, Children's Literature Specialist, Mt. Pleasant, WI © Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A stylish little girl plucks her favorite sun hat from the "Summery Things pile" and, "with a little of this...and a little of that," repurposes it throughout the year. Ashburn's peppy text with (irregular) internal rhymes matches the levity and frilliness of Ng's delicate mixed-media art. A lively offering for young fashionistas and DIY-ers. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.