The Mitten by Jan Brett

G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1989.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-399-21920-X.

Brett's signature style is simple and elegant, charmingly evocative of a northern European winter scene, in this delightful retelling of a Ukranian folktale. A lovely birchbark border with faux embroidered appliques and mitten-shaped cut-outs frames each story panel. Inside each cut-out is a small predictive scene of what the reader will discover on the following page.

Nicki begs his Baba to knit white wool mittens for him, although she warns that they will be too easily lost in the deep snowy expanses outside their cottage door. Predictably, he loses one quite quickly. A succession of increasingly larger animals looking for a cozy spot find the mitten and, one by one, squeeze themselves inside. When an enormous bear has finally strained the limits of the stretchy yarn, a tiny meadow mouse curls up on his nose. This tickles the bear into a gargantuan sneeze, which blows all of the animals out of the mitten and scatters them to the four winds. Nicki spots his mitten flying through the air and joyfully retrieves it. A last full-sized, mitten-shaped picture shows Baba looking in a quite mystified manner at the two mittens, one perfectly normal, and the other stretched into an enormous version of its original self.

Children love the repetitive nature of the addition of each new animal to the mitten, and especially enjoy the sneezy explosion, dramatically produced. Great for storytime about winter for both toddlers and preschoolers, and wonderful to explore the sidebar details on an individual basis. A rather labor-intensive craft involves coloring a giant mitten and animal cut-outs with which the children can recreate the story. The story can also be told with flannel board or puppets for a change of routine.

Narrative skills are enhanced in retelling the story with appropriate props. Toddlers develop a vocabulary of woodland animals.

ALA Booklist Magazine Best Children's Books of the 1980s
New Yorker Magazine Best Children's Books, 1989
National Teachers Association Top Ten Titles for Elementary Students, 1999
National Education Association Educators' Top One Hundred Children's Books, 2007

The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg

Dial Books for Young Readers, New York, 2000.
Hardcover edition, 36 pages, ISBN 0-8037-2566-3.

Annie has lost her mitten sometime, somewhere, in the activity-filled day out of doors. She retraces her steps around the sliding hill, the snow forts, the snowman, and the snow angels, finding boots and sweaters belonging to others, but no mitten. She imagines that an eagle has taken the mitten to keep her baby warm, or that a mouse has purloined it for a sleeping bag in the woodpile. Perhaps she should plant a mitten tree to tend until fall harvest, giving ripened mittens as gifts for Christmas, birthdays and Valentine's Day.

It begins to rain, and Annie is called inside for hot chocolate. Through the rain-streaked window, the melting snowman is visible. He seems to have a little red heart in the center of his snowy chest. Surprise! There is Annie's mitten!

This is a fun wintertime story for toddlers and preschoolers, filled with reminiscences of outdoor play, imaginative fancies, and a bit of a mystery, delightfully solved. Kellogg's busy hallmark style works well for group reading, but is more interesting to view up close for all of the whimsical details. Pairs up nicely with Jan Brett's The Mitten.

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

HarperFestival, New York, 1996.
Lap Book edition, 48 pages, ISBN 978-0064433136.

"Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" Originally published in 1938, the call of the peddlar continues to draw an enraptured young audience. From the manner in which the peddlar meticulously stacks his variously colored caps, to his hilarious encounter with the monkeys, children actively engage in the drama of cap counting and simian imitations. As the story calmly resolves back into the original rhythm, they love to cry out with the peddlar, "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!"

Movement activity: Kids love to act out the monkey noises and motions.

Winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.

Red Rubber Boot Day by Mary Lyn Ray

Illustrated by Lauren Stringer. Hartcourt, Inc., San Diego. 2000.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-15-213756-4.

"I press my nose against the screen and smell the smell of screen and rain. I listen. I watch." After breathing in the smells, sounds and sights of a rainy day, Ray's young boy retreats to enjoy a variety of  indoor activities: drawing, blocks, reading, cars, hiding, tea party. Tired of amusing himself inside, he bursts outside to splash in puddles wearing his red rubber boots. "Red boots. My boots. Red rubber made-for-rain boots." His neighbor, with a touch of eccentricity, stands barefoot on the lawn. "It is a fine thing feeling wet grass on bare feet in green rain." Our boy disagrees, and continues to enjoy "slapping, stirring puddles" in his scarlet footwear until he "wade[s]  into blue sky", and the sun has come out.

Stringer has created close-up views of the child's world in full page warm acrylics. The text moves in simple sentences briefly on each page. This is a great book for sharing in a toddler or preschool storytime about weather or rainy days.

Bill Grogan's Goat by Mary Ann Hoberman

Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. Megan Tingley Books, Boston, 2002.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-316-36232-8.

The four-line tune of this classic folk song creates an easy vehicle for the tale of a goat who ate three red shirts from a clothesline, coughed them up, and flagged down a train. Mistaking three fellow barnyard travelers in turn for pieces of furniture, the goat apologizes by giving each animal one of the red shirts. At mealtime, the messy eaters get the shirts so filthy that they must be rewashed and hung up. The goat finds that he can't resist eating them off the clothesline yet again.

A funny story to sing or read out loud for todder/preschool storytime with a farm animal or train theme. The melody line is written out in the front of the book for those who need a little musical assistance.

Narrative skill in pointing out the circular plot ending. Rhyming words emphasize phonological awareness.

Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep by Teri Sloat



Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc. New York, 2000.

Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-7894-2637-4.

Farmer Brown's sheep desperately chase their recently sheared wool through the washing, combing, spinning, and dyeing processes. Noting their pathetic shivering, the farmer graciously knits them a closet full of colorful cardigan sweaters to wear until their wool grows back. Told in rhyme and detailed in watercolor, this story provides a lighthearted, educational romp through wool production.

A nice addition to a sheep-themed story hour with show and tell possibilities. If someone raises sheep, is a knitter, or has a spinning wheel, those elements may be drawn in. A possible craft might be to glue cotton balls on a sheep outline.

Narrative skills are developed in describing the sequence of wool processing. Vocabulary related to sheep farming is presented.