LoveReading4Kids Says
August 2021 Book of the Month
Perfectly pitched, gorgeously illustrated and told simply but with sophistication, this is a must-have picture book. Ravi is cross with his little sister Ruby and breaks her toy car, ‘So no-one went to bed feeling happy.’ He wakes up in the morning to find he’s wearing a Grumpy Hat. Red and uncomfortable looking, it is ‘as itchy as a spider’s dance class’. Dad is wonderfully patient and has lots of practical suggestions, but nothing works and soon the Grumpy Hat is turning into a Sad Hat. When hope seems to be vanishing altogether and Ravi is completely buried by the hat, just his little feet visible at the brim, he has an idea. He says sorry to Ruby and they start to play together again. The Red Hat disappears and suddenly Ravi is wearing a ‘very fine pair of Happy Socks’. It’s a superb exploration of feelings, articulated in a way that even the very young will understand; a book to evoke the strongest feelings of recognition in child and adult reader, and full of humour too.
Eva Eland’s Klaus Flugge Prize winner When Sadness Comes to Call and the follow up Where Happiness Begins also examine feelings little children will recognise but struggle to put into words, and Tom Percival’s Big Bright Feelings series of picture books will similarly prompt lots of conversations and understanding.
Andrea Reece
Find This Book In
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Grumpy Hat Synopsis
Everyone knows that little sisters can be an-noy-ing! So when Ravi gets annoyed with Ruby and breaks her toy car in a rage, everyone goes to bed upset. Ravi wakes up the next morning with a bright red grumpy hat stuck fast on his head! And he can't get rid of it, no matter how hard he tries...
Ravi learns how to swap his grumpy hat for happy socks in this uplifting story about siblings, family life and controlling bad moods.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781839130373 |
| Publication date: |
7th April 2022 |
| Author: |
Nicola Kent |
| Illustrator: |
Nicola Kent |
| Publisher: |
Andersen Press Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
32 pages |
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About Nicola Kent
Nicola Kent is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books that have been published in over 20 different languages.
Nicola has been working with words and pictures all her life. She did a degree in Art and English, worked as a TV producer for the BBC and Channel 4, wrote scripts for children’s animation, and finally kickstarted her dream of a career in children’s books via an MA in Children’s Book Illustration.
Nicola likes her books to feel handmade as if created at the kitchen table especially for her reader. Her illustrations are made with ink, watercolour, pencil and various printing techniques which she collages together digitally.
Nicola grew up in Holloway, London and now lives up the road in Hackney with her family, cat and dog. She loves gardening and cycling and thinks knowing how and when to be silly is one of the most important life skills.
Nicola has a tracheostomy and a very quiet voice. This was caused by damage to her airway during treatment in intensive care when she was a child, and multiple surgeries since. The left side of her diaphragm is also paralysed which means her breathing is difficult on stairs or hills!
Nicola’s experience of chronic health issues and disability are very specific but have given her insight into more universal challenges of coping with difference. She also understands from many years of experience the difficulties of juggling normal life with the patient’s life: treatment, appointments and health admin all add to the often tiring repercussions of functioning with a physical difficulty. And through her direct experience of a sudden and critical childhood illness, she has great empathy and understanding of children coping with the aftermath of trauma.
Nicola’s books often draw on her personal experience to create universal ideas that resonate widely, for example in The Strongest Mum and Giraffe and a Half. She regards warm humour as massively important and feels strongly that books that give those qualities to children can be hugely healing as well as entertaining and life affirming.
Nicola feels strongly that children with differences and disabilities should also feature in books in which that difference or disability is not the focus. Most people with a disability do not want it to define them. In Measuring Me, for example, there is a girl with a tracheostomy and a boy with a walking frame, but these are incidental in a book which is about extraordinary facts of measurement and scale in the human body.
Nicola enjoys events and school visits and feels it’s important and valuable that children are given the opportunity to meet people living with a disability who are also getting to work in a dream job!
More About Nicola Kent
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