Stories for Growing
Cover of We Found a HatAges 4 to 8
Fairness

We Found a Hat

Jon Klassen

Ages 4 to 8
About this age guidance

Kirkus: 4–8; Publishers Weekly: 4–8

The age tag follows Kirkus review. Other sources may suggest different ages. This is audience guidance, not an independent reading level.

A librarian’s activity page says the book prompts talk about problem solving, sharing and temptation. Her summary has the turtles leave the one hat, and the tempted turtle changes its mind.

Two turtles find one hat that looks good on both of them. Because there is only one, they agree to leave it. One turtle cannot stop thinking about the hat and creeps toward it after dark, but its friend’s dream of both of them wearing hats brings it back to bed. The ending leaves some room for the reader to decide what happened.

Good forFairness complaints

Recommended by Children’s Library Lady

Find at Bookshop.org Find on Amazon

Choose your preferred shop and check the edition there.

What children see in the story

The turtles take turns with the hat, agree that one hat cannot be fair to two friends, and in the end the tempted turtle leaves it alone and goes back to its friend.

Why it’s on these shelves

Fairness
Two turtles find one hat that looks good on both of them. Because there is only one, they agree to leave it. Later one turtle is tempted and creeps toward it, then goes back to its friend and sleeps beside it.

Why pick it up?

The tempted turtle does not take the hat and lies down beside its friend. Publishers Weekly calls the ending a moment of grace; Kirkus says it invites readers to build their own ending.

A note for parents

Honest read: the book models fairness (one hat, two friends, so neither has it) and a character stepping back from a temptation. It does not model sharing: Publishers Weekly says the conclusion has no sharing, peacemaking or violence, so the record does not use the sharing shelf. The ending is ambiguous on purpose, with the first turtle’s dream doing the work. Kirkus says it leaves readers to construct their own endings, and some 5 year olds will need a conversation to see what happened. Companion to I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat (theft stories). This book stands alone and no theft succeeds. Kirkus calls it Hat Trilogy vol. 3 and uses the word tortoises; Publishers Weekly and the librarian say turtles. Better for ages 5 to 7 than 3 to 5 because the story depends on reading the pictures against the words.

Where this recommendation comes from

Children’s Library Lady

A librarian’s activity page says the book prompts talk about problem solving, sharing and temptation. Her summary has the turtles leave the one hat, and the tempted turtle changes its mind.

Read Children’s Library Lady’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

Another good example

Browse more values