Many, many years ago I was into the illustrations of Sandra Boynton; the animals that she drew were so entertaining and interesting that I went a little bonkers and had tons of her stuff around the house. I have no idea why or when it happen but I grew out of it. One of the cutest board books she published was “Blue Hat, Green Hat” for kids ages one and older. The series included other books like “A To Z”, “Horns To Toes” and “Doggies” but “Blue Hat, Green Hat” is the only one that I decided to keep. One of the many things that I love about this book is that the pages have a thick glossy coating to them so fingerprints, peanut butter and crayons wipe off easily - if only all board books were made like this! The one that I have was published in 1984 so it is pretty old, newer versions may have some slight color changes to them and when I went to look online for this to see what the going price was I was shocked to see people bidding over twenty dollars for this one at eBay.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

Board books are for early learning and they are usually designed to hold up to some rough use. As I mentioned, this one has thick cardboard pages with a glossy coating to them so unless your child is part Terminator, chances are he or she won’t be able to destroy this. If the title didn’t clue you in, this book is about colors but it also can be used to introduce children to articles of clothing as well as what part of the body you wear them. There are four characters that help you out - an elephant, bear, reindeer and turkey. In every instance the poor turkey is wearing something backwards or on the wrong part of the body. The elephant has on a blue shirt, the bear a red one, the reindeer a dashing green one and the turkey a yellow one but he has it upside down and around his waist. You can use these visual cues to ask your child what’s wrong with the turkey or what is he doing wrong.

Boynton uses shirts, hats, pants, socks, coats and shoes through the story and on the last page there is a drawing of the turkey wearing a different colored piece of clothing - only this time he’s got it right! Sadly, When everyone else is wearing bathing suits, the poor turkey decided to jump off the platform wearing his lovely red hat, yellow shirt, blue pants, white socks and green shoes. Talk about overdressing for an event! Since the drawings are pretty basic and to the point kids don’t get overwhelmed by what they are seeing but that opens the door to asking them questions about the animals, what noises they make, asking them if they know what they eat - pretty much anything you can think of. Even though this is a very simple book, you can use it to teach children a lot of things about colors, clothing, animals and picking out the thing that is wrong in each section.

My Take

I was a little reluctant to let the boys read this because I knew that once they got their grubby little hands on it chances are it would be ruined. Even after all four of them read it over and over again it still looks like it is in great shape. There is a small ding on the cover from it getting tossed around but it was something that I started reading to them when they were very young. Most people don’t get the full value from board books, they think they are something that you read to a child and point to things to teach them the basics but at that young of an age they are like sponges - anything that you show them or present to them gets sucked in and retained.

The Bottom Line

I do regret getting rid of the other books in the series and wish that I could get them back. Sure I could buy them from someone at eBay or have a bookstore order them but they wouldn’t be the ones that I originally had. This one has a price on the back of $3.95 but you have to keep in mind this was put out in 1984, I am sure that this costs more these days [that is if it is even still in print]! The one thing that I really like about this book is the presentation - large words and simple drawings - as well as the colors that are used. Some books like this go overboard with bright and loud colors. That might be fine when you are dealing with a child that is between a year or a year and a half but when you want to start them out early with board books, the softer colors seem to work best when capturing their attention. But hey, I just write the reviews, not the books!


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2005 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes