Stormy's Hat

Stormy’s Hat

Author: Eric A. Kimmel

Illustrated by: Andrea U’Ren

Copyright, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2008

32 pages

Historical Fiction

                I chose this book because the cover of the book was funny. I thought it was cute that there was a man with 4 different hats on his head. Have you ever wondered how the railroad man got his unique hat? It is a very particular hat, one that is not too heavy, the brim does not get in the way but keeps the sun out of their eyes. It has to be a hat that can withstand sparks from the train, as well as needs to be able to be cleaned, well what about if they don’t want to wear it? Well Stormy was a railroad man and that is exactly what he needed. He needed a hat, and not just regular hat, a special hat. Stormy looked all over for a hat that he thought would be perfect for him to wear. He tried a fireman’s hat, a cowboy hat, a paper maker hat, none of them worked! Stormy’s wife had the perfect solution but Stormy would not listen to her, over and over again. Finally Ida had enough and she made Stormy listen to her! Would Ida have the solution to his problem? Would she be able to make him a hat that would work for the railroad? To find out you have to read Stormy’s Hat.

                The pictures in this story were perfect for the story. They were drawn with watercolors and pen and ink. The pictures were very colorful and helped the story be portrayed. The pictures vary from one page to going across two pages. The text in this story varies from the top of the page to the bottom. Most of the text in this book is in a text box that has colors behind it. It sets off a contrast between the pictures and the text. I think that this book would be better for second grade through sixth grade. I think that first graders would enjoy the book but would not be able to read it on their own. So with teacher support it could be a first grade book as well.

                Classroom connections for this story can be an art, history and writing lesson. The students can create their own hat to wear to represent their personality. The teacher can provide the students with certain materials and basic shape of the hat and let the students create their own hat. This would give the students a sense of uniqueness and self to relate themselves to the book. The teacher also can teach a lesson on the history of the railroad hat, exploring more into the creation of it by Ida and Stormy. The students could also write about the important factors that led up to the creation of the railroad hat. Lastly the students could compare and contrast why the certain hats that Stormy tried on did not work. The students could compare one of the specific hats to the final railroad hat and what made them different and unique not only as a hat but also to the specific person the hat is connected to.