My second Dr. Seuss.
I truly see the magic in his tiny stories.
I'm loving his stuff....
22 was my first one, what a late bloomer I am.
My sister and best friend are reading stories with 500 pages and more while I am taking a saunter with stories less than even 50 pages, hahahahah.

A Dr. Seuss mystery and first in the Bartholomew Cubbins series.

My Take
This is cute, and it does resonate, as I love hats and have my own much smaller collection. And it's lucky for Bartholomew that the executioner has rules!

The illustrations are all in black and white…except for that orange hat. It makes sense since it's the focus of the entire story, lol. And the illustrations are fabulous. I'd love for any one of them as art hanging on a wall.

Hmmm, I don't think I like a king who gets so upset about one hat! Or two or three…or more. If anything, I think I'd be laughing and pulling off the hats to see how many we'd go through.

I'm of two minds about this story. On the one hand, it does irritate me that the king can obviously see that Bartholomew has taken off his hat, even if another immediately pops up. Nor do I understand why he is so obsessed with Bartholomew removing his hat! On the other hand, I like that the king finally sees the light, both with Bartholomew and that nasty little nephew of his.

The moral of this story is about bullying and the abuse of power. It's a good topic to discuss with your kids. And I do like that there is a somewhat positive resolution in the story. Although you may want to gloss over the envy that brings it about!

The Story
It's a sad day for Bartholomew Cubbins when he goes into town to sell his family's cranberries. For that hat of his…the one hat he owns, and that had belonged to his father's father, suddenly goes wild.

It's a state that also drives the king wild and leads to some very precarious moments for Bartholomew!

The Characters
Bartholomew Cubbins lives in the Kingdom of Didd.

King Derwin is its ruler. Grand Duke Wilfred is the king's nasty nephew.

He has his own Royal Coachman and a Captain of the King's Own Guards. Sir Alaric is the Keeper of the King's Records and wears a ruler instead of a sword. Sir Snipps is the maker of hats; he wears a scissors instead of a sword. The Yeoman of the Bowmen can shoot mighty arrows. The Father of Nadd is a Wise Man who knows it all, but not as much as the Father of the Father of Nadd.

The Cover and Title
The cover has a pale blue-gray background with a young man with hair that flips up on the ends wearing a T-shirt, vest, and pants torn off at the knee with pointy-toed slippers. On his head is a hat, an Alpine hat…a Bavarian hat with a feather. In his hands, he holds hats and the floor is littered with yet more hats.

The title is the entire point of the story, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, and how they get Bartholomew into and out of trouble.

decades before Seuss got woke about class with Yertle and eco justice with Lorax, he penned this anti-fascist parable about how even kings must bow before the market. An epic wind up with little pay off and zero rhymes! The takeaway makes for a weird curio, in that the moral is so open-ended that it could be either a neoliberal or socialist tract, but worth the read if only to think about how the two can co-exist, esp in this day and age when the two ideologies see the other as a threat worthy of mutually assured destruction

I didn't read this one because of the books that are being pulled from circulation (although this one contained some corporal punishment). The newish computer animated "Grinch" movie gave my memory a jolt, when Cindy Lou Who passes characters in the street and gives a shout-out to "Mr. Cubbins". Batholomew Cubbins was the protagonist in at least three of Dr. Seuss's early books and I wanted a refresher since I hadn't even thought about the character for maybe fifty years.

Seuss's early books weren't about teaching kids to read, they were about entertainment. They are also more challenging to read and contain magic, suspense and the possibility of very dire consequences befalling young Cubbins.

This is very much a book you read to children rather than them reading alone, at least at the reading level this seems to be aimed at.

These early, bigger books (wordier and physically larger) are much more entertaining and really worth going back and reading. The Cat in the Hat and later works, not so much...

It was quite unfair for the king to be punishing Barthalomew for something that was not his fault and couldn't do anything about.But in the end, I was happy that it was a happy ending for Barthlomew

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss is a fictional picture book that tells the story of Bartholomew Cubbins. Bartholomew Cubbins is a little boy who wears a red feathered hat on his head and lives in the Kingdom of Didd, where King Derwin, the ruler of the Kingdom of Didd, is stationed. When Bartholomew decides to go further up into the Kingdom of Didd, he is greeted by King Derwin while walking up the streets of the kingdom. When King Derwin demands Bartholomew to remove his hat in front of him, Bartholomew can't seem to because every time he does, a new hat appears on top of his head. This forces the king to take Bartholomew Cubbins back to his kingdom and figure out a way to remove Bartholomew's red feathered hat from his head. How does Bartholomew Cubbins and/or King Derwin manage to remove his red feathered hat from the top of his head? The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is not a quality text. It is not a quality book because everything in the story including the characters, setting, and things are all made up and the whole book is based on a fictional story. Even though the book is based on a fictional story, it still uses great illustrations and great descriptions to really have a visual of things like what the characters are doing in the story and how the characters react to certain things in the story. One thing that the book does poorly is that Dr. Seuss didn't include much diversity in the story. While he did have a racist background, he still could've added some characters of different color in the story. Personally, I enjoyed the story of Bartholomew Cubbins.

We love Dr. Seuss at my house.

Love it! Not the perfect choice for this year's first graders, but they did laugh a lot.

“The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” is one of Dr. Seuss’ earlier books as it is not written in the rhyming text that Dr. Seuss has been well known for. “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” is about a young boy named Bartholomew Cubbins who discovers that every time he takes a hat off his head, a new one sprouts up on his head, which cause trouble for him when the king finds out about it. This book may be a bit too dark for smaller children, but older children will definitely enjoy this classic tale from Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss’ early book is not written in the traditional rhyming text that he has been known for, but is instead written in a splendid narrative that is told in an extremely exciting and effective way. The story is also extremely creative as hats appeared on Bartholomew’s head with a real explanation which makes the matter mysterious. Dr. Seuss’ illustrations are once again in black and white with the exception of Bartholomew’s hats which are colored red, which effectively show how the hat has a huge importance to the story.



Parents should know that the scenes where the King threatened to cut Bartholomew's head off because Bartholomew could not take the hats off might disturb some children. Parents might want to read this book first to see if their child could handle such intense subject matter.

“The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” is a wonderful tale that is both exciting and suspenseful for many children and will be enjoyed by many children for years to come. I would recommend this book to children ages six and up because of the extreme dark tone that this book presents that would scare smaller children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Wonderful book!!!....absolutely wonderful, I just can't seem to get enough =)

My favorite Dr. Seuss book! Love it.

Memorable first lines in books - we writers always try to hone the hook. Here is one:

In the beginning, Bartholomew Cubbins didn't have five hundred hats.

Going Christmas shopping for nieces and nephews I ran across a high fantasy story I read again and again growing up. The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss. Still a fine story; I hope nephew five likes it.

Written in prose instead of his normal poem scheme, the fantasy by Dr. Seuss has a beautiful pace and flow. Enemies and friends from the executioner to the spoiled Grand Duke distract Bartholomew from his ongoing issue of the hat which would not come off. The 1940 story still holds up perfectly for today's world.