Kantian Ethics for the Very Young: Antimoral and Anthropomorphism in I Want My Hat Back
(You can find Klassen's book here and at your local library. You can learn more about Jon Klassen and his work here ) KANTIAN ETHICS FOR THE VERY YOUNG: Antimoral and Anthropomorphism in I Want My Hat Back It was past her bedtime. My husband and I heard the fridge slam shut and our three-year-old daughter scuffle upstairs, down the hall to her bedroom. “Charlotte?” my husband called. She opened our door a crack. “What were you doing downstairs?” “Nothing,” she said, beaming like the morning sun. “I don’t have pie in my bed.” Discipline requires a somber disposition, which can be difficult for a parent who finds an entire pie hidden under a pillow. My response to Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back , where an adorable bear gobbles up an adorable rabbit out of revenge and then gets away with it , included shock, maniacal laughter, and the urgent need to share the book with someone as cynical as myself. This was an anti-fable—it mocked the idea of a moral. In it, Klassen, li
