Book Review: Henri’s Hats: Pixar Animation Studios Artist Showcase

Hi everyone!

We received the book Henri’s Hats to review, which is a book aimed for preschoolers and is part of the Pixar Animation Studios Artist Showcase Books series. I had never heard of that before, but it says in the book, “This series of original picture books puts the spotlight on the incredible artists of Pixar Animation Studios. The pages of each book showcase the personal work of one of these talented artists and introduce a brand-new world and characters”.

Henri’s Hats is nicely illustrated in watercolor, with Mike Wu serving as both the author and illustrator. His watercolors for the book are in earthtones.

Henri is the little boy in the book. While it isn’t said in words where he lives, the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe are in the background as he and his mom are on the train. They are on their way to see Henri’s Grand-Papa (Papa), who Henri has not seen – well, since he was small, which could just be a couple of years earlier.

Henri’s Papa has a dog who steals Henri’s hat, and leads him to a trunk with many more hats. Henri tries on the various hats, which had belonged to his Papa and each hat inspires his imagination. For example, Henri finds a helmet and imagines himself a Grand Prix driver.

Papa finds Henri – and Henri finds out that the hats are from adventures already taken while Henri still has his own adventures to dream of.

The final two pages talk about Mike Wu and what inspired him to write the book – mostly both his dad and his own life. Wu talks about creating the Ellie book series.

Henri’s Hats is a lovely book, not terribly long but just enough for a bedtime story. It also shows the bonds of family and how different generations can relate to one another.

Henri’s Hats will release on September 4th, 2018.

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