31 in 31, day 12: This is not my hat AND Meet: Jon Klassen!

You can thank a rare half day at work for this post!
Wednesday, I had A GREAT time listening to Jon Klassen talk at Hicklebee’s.

First he asked for a helper to hold the book and then read
“This is not my hat”

Everyone was chuckling.
Then he started talking about the book.

He said he had more ideas for the animals
in the “I want my hat back” book,
but none of them worked out.

One such one?
“There’s a snake over there.”

So they suggested he try other animals.
And he started working with fish.

Why is the hat not pointy on the fish?
“A pointy hat on a fish only looks like another fin,” he said.

So he started writing and illustrating.
The illustrations are black and white ink scanned digitally.
He spent days at a time making plants, animals, fishes, rocks,
then put them together digitally.
He said the background used to be teal, but he got hooked on the black.

“Books on black are scary!” he said,
and the fact that the background is black
is just one thing that makes this book like a “negative” of the first “Hat” book.
The other thing? This one is told from the point of view of the thief.

Favorite quote of the day:
“My illustrations are bad actors”

This was when the bookstore owner was discussing how funny it was
that his characters never look at each other in “I want my hat back.”

He opened up the book and showed the first picture of the bear.
If you recall, he’s just standing there.
“See,” he said, “That’s all he’s got.”

He talked about eyes a lot.
“It’s fun to change just the eye on the fish and see the expression change,” he said,
about “This is not my hat”, and then flipped to the back of  “I want my hat back.”

The bear is sitting, with his hat on, looking out with his eyes.
Jon said some people thought the bear looked really proud of what he had done.
Then he flipped back a few pages.
The bear had the same look in his eyes.
“But now that we know what he did,” Jon said, “people think he looks proud.”

He drew a little fish and let children come up and draw plants to “hide” the fish.
Genius.
Here’s the end result:

Then it was question time.
And, surprisingly, there weren’t many.
Someone asked what he was working on next.

Another book with Candlewick.
And something with Mac Barnett.

Which was cool because MAC was in the house!
He came to hang out with Jon and was even signing books later too!

Then someone asked a question
that was so great,
I was mad I didn’t think of it,
while also being happy that someone did!

“What kind of books did you like as a kid?”

Jon says Frog and Toad
and everyone says, “Awwwwhhhh.”

No joke.
Then he talks about P.D. Eastman,
about Go, Dog, Go!
and Sam and the Firefly.

“Remember that ‘do you like my hat’ part in Go, Dog, Go?” he asked,
and then motioned to his books.

Then it was signing time.
I FORGOT my linocut print.

So I just walked up there with Singe Singe ready to go.
Since Mac was there, I got a picture of Singe Singe with both of them.

“He can be a little arrogant and big headed,” I said, “because he’s met so many authors and illustrators.”
Jon nodded and said, “Yeah, look at his eyes.”

“Yeah,” I said, “he even looks a bit proud, I’d say”
and thought I was clever mentioning that proud eyes bit from the talk earlier.

I got the books signed

then handed Jon a handwritten thank you note.

Basically I drew a picture of a fish
And hid it in plants.
And said thank you for writing awesome books,
and for coming to Hicklebee’s,
and…yeah.

I said sorry about not having another linocut print.
And he said he remembered me!
He said he just moved his art studio and when he was moving,
he came across a linoprint card I gave him.
(I always give them as thank you’s; he has two since I met him twice.)
He said it was really nice and thanked me again for it.

Isn’t my bookstore the absolute best?

Ok, ANYWAY
CLEARLY today’s book is this:

Title: This is not my hat
Published by: Candlewick Press, 2012
Written by: Jon Klassen
Illustrated by: Jon Klassen

In one word: Hilarious
In one sentence: A fish thinks he’s off the hook for stealing a hat; keyword: THINKS.

Favorite pages:

Likes:

• the black background. It does make it a bit scary!
• the simple sentences and how simple the story is.
• the eyes, THE EYES! I love when the little eye on the little fish is looking back, after he stole the hat.
• the “confrontation” in the tall plants.
• the ending.
• ok, pretty much the whole book.
• I also like the shape of the book. It’s long and not so tall and kind of small but not really.
• it is narration and no dialogue tags.

Learns:

• as you all know, I love books that are dialogue books, and I have a few written up, so it’s always nice to see.
• I love the illustrations and it makes me want to learn photoshop so I can start doing some cool stuff like that.
• you can have a really successful book, and a really successful follow up too!
• hats can be VERY entertaining 🙂

ALSO here are the designs for the little idea notebooks.
So Marcie and Donna, let me know what you want on your notebook!
These are the pencil sketches that will be transferred onto a carving block,
then handprinted on the little notebooks.

Wow.
I know.
Long post.
You did it! Thanks for making it to the end.
Let’s see the bookshelf now:

and what did you read today?
Also, a hip-hip-hooray for Friday!

Enthusiastically yours,

Kathy Ellen and Singe Singe