I Want my Hat Back Reading Map

I Want my Hat Back Reading Map

1. Humour

   • Younger Primary Texts
     • Fortunately, the Milk... by Neil Gaiman
       • Neil Gaiman's text follows a father trying to bring milk home for his children's cereal. The short novella text features increasingly long sentences and absurdist themes. Sentences such as 'The door said Emergency Exit - Do not open for any reason, this means YOU on it. I opened the door.' on page 20 may be used to teach students humour through juxtaposition and irony.
   • Picturebook Texts
     • The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith
       • The Wonky Donkey is a text that uses rhythm and repetition to convey humour. It follows the story of a Donkey as a narrator describes him with increasingly elaborate adjectives. This picturebook text would be best read before 'Fortunately, the Milk...' by Neil Gaiman - as they both use lengthy absurdist sentences to convey the theme of humour to young readers. Eg. 'spunky, hanky-panky cranky stinky dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.' on Page 22.
     • No One Likes a Fart by Zoe Foster Blake
       • This text follows the life of a fart as it searches for a friend. The text features a comic-style layout and follows a similar structure to I Want my Hat Back by Jon Klassen. Pages 15 and 16 feature several characters reacting to the fart in hyperbolic ways, and may be used to teach students humour through reaction and character.
   • Older Primary Texts
     • Rascal Takes Off! by Paul Jennings

2. Problem Solving

   • Early Childhood Texts
     • Are you my Mother? by P.D. Eastman
   • Picturebook Texts
     • Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
   • Younger Reader Texts
     • Searching for Super bu Marion Jensen
   • Older Primary Readers
     • What Happens Next by Susan Hughes
   • Rationale: Problem Solving is a theme present throughout I Want my Hat Back. Problem solving should be represented in children's literature, as it allows readers to hypothesise outcomes and predict the events of a text as they read through it. Texts with themes of prediction and problem solving allow readers to become text decoders, participants, users and analysts if taught appropriately (McDonald, 2018). This is a skill that is vital not only for older primary readers, but for early chlldhood readers as well - as it allows students to think critically about the information and narratives that they are reading (Mason & Fattore, 2005). Most vitally, problem solving texts give readers the tools required to come to their own conclusions and decisions, which in turn prepares them for writing their own texts (Wing Jan, 2015).

3. Loss

   • Older Primary Texts
     • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
     • Blueback by Tim Winton
   • Younger Primary Texts
     • Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto and Ed Martinez
   • Picturebook Texts
     • Where's my Teddy? by Jez Alborough

4. Works Cited in Map: Eastman, P. (1986). Are you my Mother? (1st ed.). New York: Random House. Foster Blake, Z., & Nickel, A. (2015). No One likes a Fart. Sydney: Penguin Books. Fox, M., & Horacek, J. (2010). Where Is the Green Sheep? (1st ed.). Boston: Sandpiper. Gaiman, N. (2009). The Graveyard Book (2nd ed.). London: HarperCollins. Gaiman, N. (2013). Fortunately, the Milk.... New York: Bloomsbury. Hughes, S., & Sookocheff, C. (2018). What Happens Next (1st ed.). Houston: Owl Kids. Jennings, P. (2004). Rascal Takes Off. Camberwell: Puffin Books. Jensen, M. (2015). Searching for Super (1st ed.). New York: Harper Collins. Mason, J., & Fattore, T. (2005). Children taken Seriously (1st ed.). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. McDonald, L. (2018). A Literature Companion for Teachers (2nd ed.). Newtown, N.S.W.: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA). Smith, C., & Cowley, K. (2009). The Wonky Donkey. Auckland: Cholastic. Soto, G., & Cuervo, A. (2008). Too many Tamales (1st

Images and files in the map