Hip, Hip...Beret! written by Melanie Ellsworth and Morena Forza, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Summary:  This book starts out in the streets of Paris, where Bella gets a fuzzy, red beret from her Grandfather. She tries it on and it gets blown off by a sudden gust of wind. It lands on a horse, on a flamenco dancer, on a gentleman, on a chef, on a ballerina dancer, on a balloon, on a skunk and then gets buried under the winter snow.  When spring rolls around and the snow melts, Bella finds her hat and shouts “hip, hip, Beret!  Readers can then touch the fabric of a beret.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  This is a sweet story full of rhymes and examples of words we use in the English language that are from the French language.  The story is cleverly set in France.  The seasons go from summer, to fall, to winter and finally to spring.  The colors in the illustrations match the seasons and the scenes that depict Paris employ a very French color palette.  There is lots to look at and young readers will love feeling the fabric of the beret.  This book would be perfect in a French bilingual school.  It would also be perfect for any IB school.  The IB learner profile attribute that stood out to me is “balanced”.  Belle had very balanced emotions when her brand-new hat flew away.  A great addition to any elementary school library.