Mrs Honey's Hat - Pam Adams

...written by Pam Adams about Mrs Honey.

- The story -

It would come as no great surprise that this book is about Mrs Honey and her hat and what a hat!! It's quite something, full of feathers, cherries, ribbons and proves to be just too tempting to lots of animals!

It begins on Monday when Mrs Honey takes her grandson to the park. Unbeknown to Mrs Honey, Peter sneaks round the back of her and takes the feathers ...
...the rim of her hat.................'but Mrs Honey didn't notice.'

On Tuesday she visits a friend when some birds swoop down and take the cherries from her hat and one bird lays some eggs on it..............'but Mrs Honey didn't notice.'

And so the week continues with a hermit crab taking the shell and leaving sea-weed, a cow eating the buttercups from the hat and dropping it's bell on it.

It isn't until ... more

This is another one of my Big Books that I use at school. Written in 1980, this book has stood the test of time and is still enjoyed by children of today. It is one of a series of books written by Pam Adams about Mrs Honey.

- The story -

It would come as no great surprise that this book is about Mrs Honey and her hat and what a hat!! It's quite something, full of feathers, cherries, ribbons and proves to be just too tempting to lots of animals!

It begins on Monday when Mrs Honey takes her grandson to the park. Unbeknown to Mrs Honey, Peter sneaks round the back of her and takes the feathers from her hat to make his arrows fly faster. While doing this he accidentally leaves his bubblegum on the rim of her hat.................'but Mrs Honey didn't notice.'

On Tuesday she visits a friend when some birds swoop down and take the cherries from her hat and one bird lays some eggs on it..............'but Mrs Honey didn't notice.'

And so the week continues with a hermit crab taking the shell and leaving sea-weed, a cow eating the buttercups from the hat and dropping it's bell on it.

It isn't until she goes to church on Sunday when she realises something must be wrong as all of the congregation are staring at her. When she gets home she looks in the mirror to find the gum, eggs, sea-weed, bell, cobwebs and fish bones!

Mrs Honey exclaims 'Goodness, I've got a new hat!' but she wasn't sure that she liked it.

- Illustrations, Style and Format -

The drawings are simple and bold which encourages the reader to look more carefully at the detail of the hat.

Like a lot of books this has the bog-standard format of alternate pages of text and illustrations but what I particularly like is the fact that the pages with the text on aren't just plain white, they are green, orange, pink etc which as we all know bright colours generally hold children's attention.

I have read this to children from 3 years upwards but it would appeal to younger children who are developing an interest in books. Children enjoy joining in with the repetitive text of 'But Mrs Honey didn't notice'.

As with most books of this era, it is the fashion of the characters that usually gives their age away. The fashions are dated but to be fair the children that I have read this to haven't really noticed this, what some have commented on is the age of Mrs Honey as she is a very old-looking grandma to some young children, obviously depending on their own family.

- Price -

My big book which is ideal for using with large groups of children, cost 12.99 but amazon are selling used and new versions from 4.80.
Paperbacks are from as little as 12p and hardcovers start from 1.88.

- Other Mrs Honey Books -

• Mrs Honey's Dream
• Mrs Honey's Holiday
• Mrs Honey's Glasses
• Mrs Honey's Tree

Pam Adams has also produced some classic tale books with holes in so that the reader can see sections of the next page etc.

• Old Macdonald had a farm
• This old man
• This is the house that Jack built

- My verdict -

This is a lovely book which pre-school children enjoy listening to. They like the fact that they can see what is happening to the hat before Mrs Honey does and find it very amusing. It doesn't appeal to older children as much as they begin to question how she didn't know that things were missing from her hat or how her friend didn't see the birds taking the cherries from it etc...

It's also good for sequencing the days of the week and encouraging memory skills by asking questions like: 'What was taken from Mrs Honey's hat on Wednesday? and 'What did the cow take?' etc...

This certainly doesn't rank alongside my all-time favourite books but it's a pleasant read which children enjoy, well worth a trip to the library. 

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