Independent Reflection 7- This is Not My Hat by John Klassen

This is Not My Hat by John Kalssen is about a small fish who steals a hat from a very big

fish. Little does the small fish know, the entire time he is running away to hide, the big fish is

following him. The little fish runs into a crab who swears he won’t tell, and the entire time he is

saying he knows it isn’t right, but he did it anyway. He justified it by saying it was too small for

the big fish anyway, and it fits him (the little fish) just right. In the end, the little fish is hiding in

the tall grass when the big fish finds him. We do not see exactly what happens, but the big fish

leaves wearing his hat again. We do not see the little fish anymore.

I thought this book was cute, but not super awesome. I thought the ending where it was

implied the big fish hurt or killed the little fish was not the best example. Kids absorb everything,

and violence is never a good thing to even insinuate. I also did not love the whole narrative of

stealing in general. Yes, the big fish does get it back, but we see no apologies or anything, and

the little fish does not even really think he is doing a bad thing. I am not normally so strict or

sensitive, but I am a big believer in the child psyche, and think that children are like sponges.

The wrong things go into their psyches and they internalize things that come out as issues later in

life. We see this a lot with violent video games coming out later in life as violent kids or the

opposite, desensitized kids. While this book is really mild, I thought it was boring as well. The

story being boring coupled with the not great messages made this book just okay for me.

However, I did think the illustrations were cute and that children would enjoy reading this quick

and funny story.

As for writing, it could definitely be a useful text. I think the first thing I could do with

this is to teach point of view. This story is from the perspective of the little fish, and he thinks

that the big fish will never find him and is asleep the entire time. This is important because if it
was from a different point of view we would see things differently. Readers know that the big

fish was following the little fish the entire time, and was actually upset that his hat was stolen. If

it was from the big fish’s point of view, the story would be entirely different. I could have

students tell a story like this from two different perspectives and see how their story changes. I

could also use this to teach opinion pieces. The little fish thinks he is not wrong the entire time,

and even justifies why he stole the hat. This would be cute to have students write opinion pieces

on why they did something with examples. It could be anything like “wearing a blue shirt is the

best choice, here’s why”, or “light-up shoes are silly, here is why”. It would just be good practice

for students to have an opinion that they can defend. Another thing I could use this text for,

especially for gifted students or older students, is humor. Students could practice writing pieces

that are funny in a deadpan or unexpected way, similar to the style of this author. It would be fun

to share these pieces and read them out loud with students! Humor is sometimes hard to write

and master.

Overall, I did not love this book, but can see why students would love it. I also can see

that there are definitely ways I could use this text to teach writing. I would consider having this

story in my classroom library for younger children, but probably would not teach this story or

use it in a lesson.