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PRESCHOOL
Kitamura, Satoshi

Hat Tricks

32 pp. | Peachtree | March, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-68263-150-8 $16.99
(2) PS Peeking out of a top hat are two pointy white ears: "What do we have here?" A page-turn reveals a rabbit popping out of the hat, and as the rabbit emerges further, it's clear that this is not a magician's rabbit but a rabbit who is a magician--"It's Hattie the Magician and this is her hat!" The narrator encourages listeners to say some magic words ("Abracadabra, katakurico") and another pair of pointy ears appears in the hat, this time turning out to be a startled-looking orange cat. Even very young children can guess the next animal to emerge (a squirrel, because of its bushy tail), but the octopus (first indicated by a single salmon-colored tentacle) is a funny surprise. Kitamura uses a combination of watercolor, gouache, and pen-and-ink to create bold and lively pictures, with thick black lines giving each animal outsize reactions to every development. His use of color is especially striking, with the blue hat set against the warm yellows, pinks, and reds of the animals. When an elephant tries to pop out of the hat, it requires all the rest of the animals to help pull it out, but even then, there's one more surprise to come. Magician Hattie takes a well-deserved bow at the end, but preschoolers are going to want to start the story all over again, chanting, "Abracadabra, katakurico."
Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

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