You Must Bring a Hat
Simon Philip and Kate Hindley
Simon and Schuster Children’s Books
Most of us get excited when we receive invitations; however, this particular one received by the young boy narrator of this story …

causes the lad a deal of consternation: he doesn’t own a hat. The shops are sold out – completely …

What’s the little fellow to do? Ermm: maybe a monkey sporting a hat might be a good place to start –

even if the creature won’t part with his titfa.
Off goes the boy (with ‘hat’) to the venue where there is what seems to be a particularly jobsworth type of fellow on the door. “Sorry Sir, but we’re under strict instructions not to let in any hat-wearing monkeys … unless they are also wearing a monocle.” I ask you … What this doorman does and says thereafter, leads to a succession of supremely silly situations involving piano playing,

tutu wearing, cheese slicing (or not) and more until our narrator can finally take no more …

That isn’t entirely all though: what comes thereafter is ALMOST unbelievably, stupendously ridiculous and it will have children (and a fair few adult readers aloud,) splitting their sides and almost wetting themselves in delight.
What a nexus of hilarity Simon and Kate have created here. Every word of Simon’s has seemingly been weighed for maximum impact; and every scene just exudes wonderfully wacky details of the hatty, and hatless, Hindley kind.

Hat’s away and get your copy forthwith; you’ll surely love it like I did. STU-PEN-DOUS!

Use your local hat bookshop