7 Hombres con bombín

Siete hombres con bombín is a picture book for children. A first-person narrator tells the story of seven men in bowler hats in his/her city – they are always grumpy, serious, and mean. One day, one of them loses his bowler hat to the wind. The group follows it out of the city, and one by one each of them loses his hat, seeing beauty and happiness around them, while the remaining hat-wearers still see the world negatively. In the end, they become a group of happy, smiley, individuals – and when something takes their smile away, they go wherever the wind takes them.

I love this book. The illustrations are engaging – they are in a cut-out and layered style, and the layers pull the reader in. There is a lot ‘going on’ – a great point is on the pages where they lose their hats. The hat is always visible, and so you can play “where’s the hat?” with little readers, and engage them more. It’s very well written, and would translate well too – including the illustrations, since the men in bowler hats would not be at all out of place in early 20th-century London. I fail to see how any parent would not agree with the moral – open your eyes, enjoy what is around you, and smile. I strongly recommend this to the panel.

From the reader´s report by Richard Mansell.