Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau

by Andrea Beaty, David Roberts (Illustrator)

Overview

Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau is a picture book about a hat maker seeking companionship, from New York Times bestselling creators Andrea Beaty and David Roberts.

In a three-story house with a shop down below,
lived the world’s finest hat maker, Madame Chapeau.
Like the Lady herself, all her hats were refined.
Brilliantly singular. One of a kind.

So begins the tale of a lonely hat maker who matches customers to the perfect hat but lacks her own perfect match in life. Once a year, on her birthday, Madame Chapeau ventures out in her favorite bonnet to dinner. This time, a crow snatches her hat and flies away. Mon dieu!

As she chases the crow through the streets of Paris, a baker, a policeman, a cowboy, and others offer her their own hats to wear. None of them are quite right, though, until one special little girl offers her a hat “knitted with love and [her] best birthday wish.”

From the bestselling team behind Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer comes this delightful and very stylish story about love, community, and friendship, with some fancy hats thrown in for good measure.

“Beaty carries the bounces and lilts to the very last page. Roberts’ colorful, exaggerated hats (many of which are modeled on real designs) whimsically adorn the multicultural Parisian public.” —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419712197
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	537,925
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Andrea Beaty is the author of many beloved children’s books, including the bestselling Questioneers series, I Love You Like Yellow; Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau; and One Girl. She lives just outside Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

08/18/2014
An inspired milliner named Madame Chapeau stars in this eminently stylish tale from the duo behind Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer. While Madame Chapeau can match people to hats with effortless aplomb, she is lonely and dines alone—even on her birthday. When a crow steals her birthday bonnet ("Someone quite special once made that for me," she declares, giving chase), Parisians of all stripes offer her the hats off their heads, yet none is quite right. Finally, a girl gives her a colorful knit cap with yellow earflaps and green pom-poms—just the spunky accessory to lift Madame Chapeau out of her funk: "They feasted on gateau and sorbet with fruit/ and danced through the night at Chez Snooty-Patoot./ Then Madame Chapeau wore her birthday hat home./ And never again did she dine all alone." Entirely in step with the buoyancy of Beaty's rhymes, Roberts revels in filling the streets of Paris with multiculturally modish figures wearing couture ensembles, topped off (quite literally) by gloriously elaborate headpieces. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. Illustrator's agent: Artist Partners of London. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-07-22
The world's most elegant milliner loses her birthday bonnet, and the whole city rushes to help. "In a three-story house with a shop down below / lived the world's finest hatmaker, Madame Chapeau." Madame Chapeau spends her days making hats for everyone, but her evenings are very lonely. However, each year on her birthday, she carefully unpacks a special hat to wear out to dinner to a fancy restaurant (the brilliantly named Chez Snooty-Patoot). But this year, a crow steals her hat! A baker, a policeman, a cowboy and many others offer their own, very particular, caps to replace it, but Madame Chapeau can't take a hat away from its perfect owner. "She knew that each hat—with its feathers or fur— / was made for someone who was simply not her." Luckily, a small tot with lots of fuzzy yarn saves the day. With a text that can only be described as jaunty (and masterful in its inventive settings on the page), Beaty carries the bounces and lilts to the very last page. Roberts' colorful, exaggerated hats (many of which are modeled on real designs) whimsically adorn the multicultural Parisian public. An appended artist's note describes Roberts' inspirations. The underlying suggestion that no one is as alone as they believe is lovely enough, but the fun of reading this aloud elevates it even more. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews