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Synopsis
A plucky girl chases her hat through a critter-filled swamp in a rhythmic adventure glowing with sun-dappled art.
Virginnie is a freckly gal who wears a wide straw hat to shade her from the southern sun. When a puff of wind sends that hat adrift in the swamp — right to the top of a sycamore tree — she braves some scary creatures to get it back! Crawdaddy craw, snickery snake, swaying gator. . . . What will she tell her mama at the end of the day? Lilting language and expressive collages paint a lush, lively picture of a determined young girl and her dauntless adventure.
Children's Literature
Lilting rhymes tell the tale of Virginnie's adventures in the swamp as she tries to free her new hat from where it is stuck in the branches of a tall sycamore tree. As she first throws one boot up at her hat, then the other, in "yee-haw flight," to try to dislodge it. First a "crawdaddy-craw," then a "snickery snake," and finally a gator, all hungrily eye Virginnie's toes. Oblivious to the danger, and to the effect the falling-back-down boots have had, Virginnie is delighted when a tossed boot finally knocks her hat back to her. What does frighten her is a nearby step, which turns out to be her apprehensive mother. "The only scary thing was you!" notes the blissfully ignorant, delightful Virginnie. Meade combines watercolor washes with collage elements to suggest the swampy setting while focusing on the action. The end-papers show the treetops; the title pages introduce the hat, which we see being tossed up into the tree on the jacket/cover. Virginnie is a determined heroine, too focused on her hat to notice the properly frightening critters. The climactic double page showing the hat returned to her head with a large "YEE-HAW!" offers a satisfying conclusion.