Review: A Hat for Every Harriet

By looking at the cover you may be mistaken for thinking A Hat for Every Harriet is a book about hats. A book about dressing up perhaps? From the first page it is clearly explained with the line ‘Not hats like that…’ that this story much more than a tale of dress ups and make believe. It is a gently told story about being yourself and accepting who you are.

Jess Horn has used hats as the perfect metaphor for how Harriet, a neurodivergent child adapts her behaviours to suit the situation or dynamic of people she is presented with. For example she has a ‘Listener Hat’ for when she is feeling wiggly in class and a ‘Calm Down Hat’ for times when she measures her self-worth by comparing herself to others.

But what happens when the situation requires all of the hats at once? The overwhelming pressure of neurodivergent child to ‘fit in’ can be exhausting and Jess has used the hat metaphor perfectly to describe this.

Bringing the words to life is the amazing Zoë Bennet. Her soft character driven illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this story. With a spark of genius that all good illustrators have she has managed to add a second layer of visual narrative that will make children and adults alike love the book even more. Her ‘Clam Down Hat’ is covered with clouds. The ‘Listener Hat’ has giant rabbit ears and her ‘Get-To-The-Point-Hat’ has a literal arrow directing you to the point.  Kids will love deciding what the giant unnamed pile of hats all represent. Along with this attention to detail I must also applaud her muted colour pallet and use of changing composition. As usual she has nailed it.

The book blurb for A Hat for Every Harriet describes the story as ‘…accepting yourself in a neurotypical world.’ Yes this story is about Harriet who clearly has different sensibilities to the other children around her but I think that statement is selling the book short. I think all children can benefit from this story. Its a wonderful tale about being yourself and not putting on a mask (or a hat in this instance) and letting your personality shine.

Children are so good at accepting others. If we can encourage this acceptance in ourselves as well maybe this generation will grow up to be the adults the world needs.

Title: A Hat for Every Harriet
Author: Jess Horn
Illustrator: Zoë Bennett
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: 28 July 2026
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781923293243
For ages: 4+
Type: Picture book