Picture book in verse
The Boy With Many Hats
A rhyming picture book about pretend play, where every hat turns an ordinary afternoon into somewhere else entirely. Cover design and illustration for Mackleberry Press.
- Written by
- Tom Ramey
- Illustrated by
- Mehar Afroz
- Publisher
- Mackleberry Press
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 26
- Reading age
- 2 to 6 years
- Size
- 8.5 × 8.5 in
- Published
- June 2026
- ISBN
- 9798993199924
About the book
Tom Ramey’s book asks what a hat can become when it meets a big enough imagination. A cowboy hat rides the prairie, a firefighter’s helmet rescues a cat, a pirate hat takes the seven seas, and an invisible thinking cap deals with the homework. Written in playful rhyme for readers of two to six, it is really about courage, kindness and being brave at the moment it counts.
The illustration
A book of transformations needs one constant, so the boy himself stays visually stable while everything around him changes: the same face, the same build, a new world each spread. Each role gets its own palette, which lets a very young reader feel the shift before they can read the words. Because the text is in verse, the compositions are built to a steady rhythm, one clear idea per opening, so the pictures keep time with the reading.
What the studio made
- Cover design
- Full colour interior illustration across 26 pages
- Character design for the boy and each of his roles
- Print ready files
