In the faraway Kingdom of Didd, lives King Derwin in his castle, looking at the might view, feeling mightier himself. And on the opposite side, lives Bartholomew Cubbins, looking at the same view backwards, feeling mightily smaller.

Bartholomew Cubbins wears an old hat, red and with a feather sticking upwards. The hat has been passed down for centuries, and he got it from his father. Until one day, he can't take his hat off anymore, for every time he tries it, another hat appears on his head, of the same proportions. The king wants to teach him a lesson, but, no matter how hard the Grand Duke, archer, the Nodd family, the executioner or even the king try, his hat won't come off.

Join Bartholomew Cubbins in this extremely confusing journey of 1 hat multiplying into 500.

I read this children book at the age of 24. Quite late, but I'm not from US. I first heard about Dr. Seuss, when I become consciously intrested in American literature and culture. Why I decided to read book for children? Because I heard that his books cause, that quite a lot of children were fond of reading. The final two reasons to read this book were that I found downloadable version of book (it wasn't published in Poland) and curiosity. I looked for the answer why Jared Leto directed his music videos under a pseudonym of Bartholmew Cubbins.
It's time to say something about book itself. I must say, that as an adult, I like the absurdity of the story, and probably I would have like it as a child. There's no self-evident moral, so it's less boring and let children think about reasons of events.
Addition of simple illustrations, with just three colours and highlighted main object of the story - make it possible to focus on the story, instead of drawings.
Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to judge the language, because English is not my mother tongue, but I think that this book use language simple enough to be easy understandable by children and at the same time rich enough to not be boring and too childish.

Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Awards:
Grade Level: K-2
Comments: I would use this book while celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. I would bring it in because it has such a fun idea to the story, and the students would be able to keep guessing what would happen next. After we finished reading, I would have them complete an activity showing me that they can put the story in order of what happened, because it is a long book. This book can also let the students get creative and use art skills. Having them all make a different hat for themselves. Students need a creative break sometimes and I think this is a great story to use it for.

Fun! I may have read this one when I was young, but I didn't remember most of the details - except maybe when the hats started getting fancier with each one. I seemed to remember that.

I wanted an explanation for why Bartholomew suddenly couldn't take off his hat, but I did like that it was brought up again in the end, that no one "could ever explain how the strange thing had happened. They only could say it just 'happened to happen' and was not very likely to happen again."

This is one of the longer Dr. Seuss books. It isn't for beginning readers. It also doesn't have his trademark rhyming text. Still, a fun story and well worth reading.

Heading into town one day, the humble Bartholomew Cubbins whips his hat off his head when King Derwin passes in his carriage, only to find that a new one - an exact duplicate - has taken its place. The irate king, prouder than he is wise, stops the procession to demand that Bartholomew show the proper respect, and that young boy, almost petrified with fright, rushes to comply. Unfortunately, no matter how many times he removes his hat, he always finds it instantly replaced. Hauled off to the castle, he is confronted by the king and his courtiers in the throne room, and an investigation is launched. But no one, from the hat maker to the wise men, the magicians to the executioner, can solve the problem. Eventually, the king's spoiled rotten nephew, the Grand Duke Wilfred, suggests chucking Bartholomew off the tower, a fate that is only avoided when the final, 500th hat to appear is so dazzlingly ornate, that the king decides he must have it for himself...

The first of two picture-books featuring that engaging young hero, Bartholomew Cubbins - the second was n  Bartholomew and the Oobleckn, a Caldecott Honor Book in 1950 - The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins was originally published in 1938, the year after Dr. Seuss's picture-book debut, n  And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Streetn, and is his second contribution to the form. Although I definitely read the second book about Bartholomew as a girl, this one is not a title I recall from my own childhood. I picked it up as part of a Dr. Seuss retrospective I have undertaken, as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - n  And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Streetn, n  McElligot's Pooln, n  If I Ran the Zoon, n  Scrambled Eggs Super!n, n  On Beyond Zebra!n and n  The Cat's Quizzern - in recent days. See my review of n  And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Streetn, to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. This title has thankfully not (yet!) been deemed controversial.

Leaving that aside, I enjoyed The 500 Hat of Bartholomew Cubbins immensely, appreciating its tongue-in-cheek fairy-tale feeling, and its immensely expressive artwork. Parts of the story, particularly the episode in which both the Grand Duke Wilfred and Yeoman the Bowman attempt to shoot the hats from Bartholomew's head, reminded me of traditional lore. Specifically, the famous episode from the William Tell story. Other elements - the five hundred hats, the hapless court attendants, the executioner's refusal to behead Bartholomew, because it must be done when the prisoner is hatless - struck me as vintage Seuss, with that oddball sense of humor, and that matter-of-factly magical quality I have come to associate with his work. The illustrations here are done in black and white, with Bartholomew's red hat providing the only color on the page. This choice emphasizes how central the hat is to the story, as its outrageous and unusual reproduction of itself causes such chaos for both its owner and the rather silly king. Royalty definitely doesn't come off looking well here - King Derwin seems self-important, rather stupid, easily led, and swayed by both vanity and greed - making me wonder whether this was common in Seuss' books, or not. I'll be keeping an eye on that, going forward in this reading project. This is one I would recommend to picture-book readers who enjoy fairy-tale type stories, although it's a little text-heavy, so it's definitely not for the very young. Perhaps five and up?

I love this book because I think it is a very ingenious way to talk about skill building and perseverance. In the first read it would look like it is just another funny story, but I think the book talks about how sometimes doing something easy or repetitive can seem pointless but if you do it enough times, you develop new skills and suddenly one day you see the task as something different, maybe you can transcend it, do it with your eyes shut or just do it in a new way that it is much faster or surprising for other people...

The book was really awesome. It was magical and the best character according to me is Bartholomew Cubbins. He was very brave and had lots of courage to face the challenges. I love this book.

Actually I am not able to add my own gmail_id in this mobile phone otherwise my Google Classroom account will not be functional (which is configured on my father's account). So consider this review as my personal review and kindly do the needful for Wlaret book reading competition.

Thanks and Regards
Kanav Saroliya
[email protected]

Ketika Bartholomew memakai 500 topi di kepalanya....

Tepatnya nggak memakai semuanya sih. Tapi Bartholomew dapat masalah ketika ia tidak bisa melepas topinya di depan raja! Berapa kalipun ia ambil topinya, tetap saja sebuah topi masih bertengger di kepalanya. Berbagai macam cara dicoba. Mulai dari cara biasa hingga luar biasa. Dari memanggil pemanah hingga penyihir istana. Dari orang jago hingga algojo.

Lalu, berhasilkah raja melihat kepala telanjang Batholomew tanpa satupun topi bertengger di kepalanya? Temukan sendiri jawabannya.

My students found this book morbid and boring.

"The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is the story of a young peasant and his unjust treatment at the hands of King Derwin."

My husband had never read this we immediately had to remedy that situation so I read it to him. I enjoyed revisiting this book.

Eta: After posting this review I read the book description where it talks about this being a "classic treatise on bullying." I mentioned this to my husband, we discussed it for about 30 seconds, and are both in agreement that sometimes a whimsical story about hats is just a whimsical story about hats.

I liked this book, but it is my least favorite Dr. Seuss book I've read so far. Every time Bartholomew Cubbins removes his hat, another hat remains on his head.

A very early Dr. Seuss title, still holds up well as a read-aloud.