The red hat / by David Teague ; illustrated by Antoinette Portis.

Title:

Author:

Teague, David,

Additional Author(s):

Portis, Antoinette

ISBN:

9781423134114

(hardback)

1423134117

Edition:

First edition.

Publication Info:

New York :

Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 29 cm

Summary:

"Once upon a time, high atop the world, there lived a boy named Billy Hightower and the wind. When a new neighbor appears--a girl in a red hat--Billy Hightower can hardly wait to meet her and introduce himself. But the wind has other ideas"--

Subject(s):

Neighbors -- Juvenile fiction.

Winds -- Juvenile fiction.

Perseverance -- Juvenile fiction.

Holds: Copies (not including on-order items):

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Shelf Location	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Cheyenne Library	Children's Book	TEAG	Children's-J-Easy	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Fountain Library	Children's Book	TEAG	Children's-J-Easy	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Penrose Library	Children's Book	TEAG	Children's-J-Easy	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Sand Creek Library	Children's Book	TEAG	Children's-J-Easy	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Billy Hightower spends his whole life alone in a skyscraper high above a big city. Then one day, a skyscraper is built next door and a girl moves in. Could she be a friend? Every time Billy tries to reach out to her, the wily Wind gets in his way! Can Billy find a way to outsmart the Wind and make a new friend, or will he be swept away?

Author Notes

David Teague (www.davidteague.net) teaches literature at the University of Delaware and was the recipient of the Delaware Division of the arts Fellowship in Fiction. The idea for THE RED HAT came from the time David bought a balloon for his best friend, and the wind snatched it and carried it away, never to be seen again. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware with wife and frequent collaborator Marisa de Los Santos, and their two children.

Antoinette Portis (www.Antoinetteportis.com) is the author and illustrator of the NEW YORK TIMES Best Illustrated Book and Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Book, NOT A BOX, its sequel, NOT A STICK, the NEW YORK TIMES Best Illustrated Book, A PENGUIN STORY, and most recently FROODLE. Antoinette attended the UCLA School of Fine Arts and lives in Studio City, California.

Reviews (3)

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 1-A budding friendship takes center stage when a boy is intrigued by a girl he sees from across his rooftop. Billy Hightower tries various techniques to communicate with her, but the wind thwarts his efforts at every turn. He attempts to transport himself by blanket, but the wind carries him away. When all efforts fail, the girl's red hat leads him to her apartment complex, where he realizes a formal introduction may serve him best in connecting to his new friend. The wind itself is a major character within both text and illustrations; with spot-gloss texture, the wind is shown swirling along vast open areas as it carries objects used to emphasize personal relationships throughout this dramatic journey. Thick black outlines accentuate each character. The text changes its placement against the page to reflect a shift in movement; words swoop along like a loop in the sky to follow the shifting perspective. Accents of red are found in various signature elements, such as a kite, hat, scarf, and door, which adds a powerful energy. VERDICT This dynamic, gorgeously rendered glimpse into the fledgling bond between two people demonstrates the power of persistence.-Meg Smith, Cumberland County Public Library, Fayetteville, NC © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

It's not the characters that are the main draw in Teague's (Franklin's Big Dreams) story-it's the wind, which Portis (Wait) represents with sinuous lines (highlighted with transparent spot gloss) overlaid over big expanses of sky. Billy Hightower lives at the very top of "the world's tallest building," and all he has for company is the wind. (Portis shows him on the roof in a red scarf gazing up at the sky, wavy lines swirling across it.) When a high-rise is built close by and a girl in a red hat appears on its roof, Billy tries all kinds of strategies to meet her-a paper airplane, a kite-but the wind foils every attempt. At last the wind carries Billy to her place, though it's not an easy trip (Billy's town seems ready to challenge Chicago for the title of Windy City). The idea of a friend who's close yet far away provides intrigue, as does the puzzle of how to bridge that distance. The glance the two children exchange on the final page, though, suggests not adventure, but romance. Ages 3-5. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Billy Hightower lives in a building so tall that the wind is his only companion. One day, a new structure arises nearby, and across the rooftops, Billy notices a girl in a red hat and begins a quest to meet her. He shouts, sends a note folded into a paper airplane, flies a kite, even tries to parachute over, but all of his efforts are thwarted by the jealous wind. Beautifully designed two-page spreads feature pages textured with glossy raised waves to depict the movement of the wind, and muted tones of black, white, blue, and gray are highlighted by a splash of red in each illustration. Varying visual perspectives emphasize the motion described in the text, shifting Billy and the reader from high to low points and inviting us to follow the wind's swirling progress across the pages. Billy's determination wins over the wind's stubbornness, and although the girl remains somewhat mysterious, the final image shows Billy and the girl together on a roof. Rather sweetly, the text proclaims this as the beginning rather than the end.--Whitehurst, Lucinda Copyright 2016 Booklist