Review by Booklist Review
Madame Chapeau is the world's finest hat maker. She's also lonely. Once a year, she treats herself to a posh birthday dinner, wearing her finest gown and a beloved hat made especially for her. When a crow steals it from her head, Madame Chapeau endures the loss of her treasured hat but then enjoys the misguided generosity of so many presumably satisfied customers who offer her their own lids. Guided by the aesthetic and spiritual truth that those hats are perfect for their owners and completely unsuited for herself, Madame Chapeau refuses them and sits down to a mournful birthday dinner, alone and hatless. Fortunately, a little girl has noticed her plight and comes up with the perfect solution. Although there are some abrupt shifts in the storytelling, the effervescent cadence of Beaty's rhyming text compensates, as do Roberts' quirky, doll-like characters. An artist's note reveals that Roberts, who worked as a milliner himself, has included many famous hats and styles among Chapeau's repertoire. Hats off to a story brimming with charm and panache.--Dean, Kara Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An inspired milliner named Madame Chapeau stars in this eminently stylish tale from the duo behind Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer. While Madame Chapeau can match people to hats with effortless aplomb, she is lonely and dines alone-even on her birthday. When a crow steals her birthday bonnet ("Someone quite special once made that for me," she declares, giving chase), Parisians of all stripes offer her the hats off their heads, yet none is quite right. Finally, a girl gives her a colorful knit cap with yellow earflaps and green pom-poms-just the spunky accessory to lift Madame Chapeau out of her funk: "They feasted on gateau and sorbet with fruit/ and danced through the night at Chez Snooty-Patoot./ Then Madame Chapeau wore her birthday hat home./ And never again did she dine all alone." Entirely in step with the buoyancy of Beaty's rhymes, Roberts revels in filling the streets of Paris with multiculturally modish figures wearing couture ensembles, topped off (quite literally) by gloriously elaborate headpieces. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. Illustrator's agent: Artist Partners of London. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The world's most elegant milliner loses her birthday bonnet, and the whole city rushes to help. "In a three-story house with a shop down below / lived the world's finest hatmaker, Madame Chapeau." Madame Chapeau spends her days making hats for everyone, but her evenings are very lonely. However, each year on her birthday, she carefully unpacks a special hat to wear out to dinner to a fancy restaurant (the brilliantly named Chez Snooty-Patoot). But this year, a crow steals her hat! A baker, a policeman, a cowboy and many others offer their own, very particular, caps to replace it, but Madame Chapeau can't take a hat away from its perfect owner. "She knew that each hatwith its feathers or fur / was made for someone who was simply not her." Luckily, a small tot with lots of fuzzy yarn saves the day. With a text that can only be described as jaunty (and masterful in its inventive settings on the page), Beaty carries the bounces and lilts to the very last page. Roberts' colorful, exaggerated hats (many of which are modeled on real designs) whimsically adorn the multicultural Parisian public. An appended artist's note describes Roberts' inspirations. The underlying suggestion that no one is as alone as they believe is lovely enough, but the fun of reading this aloud elevates it even more. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
