The author of I Had a Favorite Dress returns with this buoyant tribute to creativity, for readers 5 to 8. Our young narrator tells us how her favorite hat is a flippy floppy beach hat; she loves it so much that she won't let Mama put it away with the summer clothes. With some ribbons and buttons and fabric, it can be just the thing for Halloween, or birthdays, or winter holidays, or even Valentine's Day. The lighthearted joy of dressing up with your best friend and inventing your own style are what this book is all about, captured in Boni Ashburn's bubbling rhymes and Robyn Ng's exuberant collage illustrations.

"A young girl has a favorite beach hat that she can't bear to part with at summer's end. Her mother lets her keep it out of storage and is amazed by her daughter's creative flair as she keeps the hat fresh throughout the year.... The energetic and engaging illustrations, created using graphite, cut paper, watercolor, crayon, and Photoshop, invite perusal. As she did in I Had a Favorite Dress, Ashburn plays with rhyming words: 'With a little of this ... and a little of that ... my hat makes a divine little valentine!'"—School Library Journal