Mr Norton’s New Hat

This is a delightful book – both the story and the illustrations are joyous. While the story is a simple one, it gives a powerful message of kindness and acceptance.

Mr Norton, the book’s main character, is endlessly patient as each part of his person and home is taken over by a variety of animals. The language is gentle and engaging, with the use of alliterative descriptions of the animals that find their way into Mr Norton’s clothing, bike and home. The cumulative storytelling will encourage children to join in, with each page adding a new creature to the list of creatures that inhabit Mr Norton’s life. The story would welcome children’s predictions of what might next appear and where it might decide to take up residence!

Corey Egbert’s illustrations capture so well the emotions of Mr Norton and the many animals and birds in the story – I particularly liked the ‘selection of stoats in his satchel’! Each page is used differently by the illustrator, either filling the page with detail or using the white spaces around the images to emphasise the clear drawings with muted and subtle colours. It is a super addition to any bookshelf.