If Responsibility Were a Hat

Tessa Sima

If Responsibility Were a Hat

What if responsibility were a hat, which one(s) would suit me best? One suits you particularly well, but for me it is unbearable. And for others it’s probably the other way round. How much responsibility does a crown bear, and what if I don’t want to wear responsibility? We could even swap hats for once!

With her picture book debut, If Responsibility Were a Hat, Tessa Sima playfully teaches us about bearing responsibility. How do different responsibilities present themselves, what does one do with them, can one take them off again? A colourful book about headgear in important times.

Luftschacht

Picture Book

Original title: Wär Verantwortung ein Hut
Age 5+
32 pp | € 22 (tbc)
hc | 170 x 185 mm
Publication: April 2023


Author & Illustrator: Tessa Sima

All rights available

  • Playful approach to the meaning of responsibility

Awards

  • One of the Most Beautiful Austrian Books in Austria in 2023
  • Children's Book Prize of the City of Vienna 2023

“Tessa Sima has given the world of children’s books a great gift with this enchanting work. A wealth of wonderful hats, as individual, full of character and charm as their wearers, have been drawn here in an unrivalled way.” – Jury Most Beautiful Books in Austria 2023

“With feather-light pencil drawings on a delicately tinted background, she tells of rights and duties that you can try out and see what fits and what doesn’t. The pictures and text also have a wonderfully provisional effect with many crossings out and corrections. Nothing is set in stone here. A dialogue between an I and you, the two characters, becomes ever more absurd and yet remains clever and full of originality. Some things are doable for one and not for the other, others are better tackled together. Or you can see how others deal with hats.
With philosophical depth, a small discourse on the subject of responsibility is created here, unpretentious, playful and funny and for the little ones to try out.” – Andrea Wanner, TitelKulturmagazin

By the same author and illustrator