Don't Touch My Hat

James Rumford has studied more than a dozen languages and worked in the Peace Corps, where he traveled to Africa, Asia, and Afghanistan. He is the author-illustrator of Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing, a 2005 Sibert Honor Book; Calabash Cat and His Amazing Journey; Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354; and There's a Monster in the Alphabet. He lives in Hawaii.
From the Hardcover edition.

PreSchool-Grade 2—In the isolated town of Sunshine, Sheriff John keeps everything clean and "civ'lized." He believes that he owes his success to his special partner-a lucky ten-gallon hat. His wife has a penchant for hats, too, fancy ones. One night, in his rush to get to the scene of a saloon fight and to "a range war a-brewin'," the lawman grabs her new, ornate chapeau. He looks quite silly in it, but his crime-fighting abilities are unaffected. In the end, Sheriff John realizes that his hat has little to do with his achievements. The simple text written in Western dialect makes this a fun story to use with a group. The color cartoon illustrations add punch lines and, according to the book, draw inspiration from artist Leonetto Cappiello and old Western movie posters. Clever endpapers feature newspaper clippings that provide extra humorous details about John's life before and after the story.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA
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