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Overview

This looks like an ordinary box full of ordinary yarn.

But it turns out it isn’t.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Understated illustrations and prose seamlessly construct an enchanting and mysterious tale about a girl named Annabelle, who lives in a world “where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys.” After Annabelle finds a box filled with yarn of every color, she immediately sets out to knit sweaters for everyone she knows. Barnett’s (Mustache!) story is both fairy tale lean and slyly witty. No matter how many sweaters Annabelle knits, the box always has “extra yarn” for another project, until the entire town is covered with angled stitches in muted, variegated colors—people, animals, and buildings alike. (Fans of Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back may suspect that a few of the animals from that story have wandered into this one.) A villainous archduke offers to buy the box, but Annabelle refuses. He steals it, but finds it contains no yarn at all, and with the help of just a bit more magic, it finds its way back to Annabelle. Barnett wisely leaves the box’s magic a mystery, keeping the focus on Annabelle’s creativity, generosity, and determination. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)

Children's Literature

Amid white snow and black chimney soot, Annabelle finds an amazing box of yarn of many colors. When she has knitted herself a sweater, she still has more yarn, so she knits one for her dog and her friend. And still there is more. After causing a distraction in school, she knits sweaters for the whole class and the teacher. The miraculous box then yields enough yarn for sweaters for "everyone," even dogs, cats, and eventually all the buildings in town. People come to see this remarkable sight, including an archduke who wants to buy the box. But Annabelle will not sell, so the duke has it stolen. When he opens it in his castle, however, the furious duke finds it empty. He curses Annabelle, but she remains happy at the end. On the jacket are Annabelle and a few animals, all wearing knitted garments made up of magnified rows of knitting stitches. Even the letters of the title are covered with them. From the title page some meandering yarn leads us to the box and a watching dog. When the story begins, the illustrations are not detailed except for the knitted coverings, which also offer the only color. There is little additional scenery. Possible meanings to the charming tale remain with the reader. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

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School Library Journal

K-Gr 3—In a snow- and soot-covered town, Annabelle discovers a small black box filled with colorful yarn. She knits a sweater for herself, but there's still yarn left over. From the seemingly inexhaustible supply, she knits sweaters for her dog, a boy and his dog, her classmates, her mean teacher, her parents, and people in town. In an astounding feat of urban knitting, she covers the buildings in sweatery goodness, but the yarn does not run out. Disaster strikes when a mustachioed, piratical archduke arrives, demanding that the child sell him the magic box. When she declines, he steals it but does not benefit from his crime, as he finds it empty. In a fit of rage, the archduke curses Annabelle and flings the box into the sea. Happily, it finds its way back to her full of yarn again. Klassen's deadpan, stylized illustrations impeccably complement Barnett's quirky droll writing. Small details like a dog's sneer or sweater-covered mailboxes add to the subtle humor. The cheerful colors of the yarn contrast with the somber grays and blacks of the town. Give this one to fans of offbeat stories like Florence Heide's Princess Hyacinth: (The Surprising Story of a Girl Who Floated) (Random, 2009) or to young knitting enthusiasts.—Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, Chappaqua Library, NY

Kirkus Reviews

A little girl in a town of white snow and soot-blackened chimneys opens a small box and discovers a never-ending gift of colorful yarn. Annabelle knits herself a sweater, and with the leftover yarn she knits one for her dog, and with the yarn left over from that, she knits one for a neighbor and for her classmates and for her teacher and for her family and for the birdhouse and for the buildings in town. All and everything are warm, cozy and colorful until a clotheshorse of an archduke arrives. Annabelle refuses his monetary offers, whereupon the box is stolen. The greedy archduke gets his just deserts when he opens the box to find it empty. It wends its way back to Annabelle, who ends up happily sitting in a knit-covered tree. Klassen, who worked on the film Coraline, uses inks, gouache and colorized scans of a sweater to create a stylized, linear design of dark geometric shapes against a white background. The stitches of the sweaters add a subdued rainbow. Barnett entertained middle-grade readers with his Brixton Brothers detective series. Here, he maintains a folkloric narrative that results in a traditional story arc complete with repetition, drama and a satisfying conclusion. A quiet story of sharing with no strings attached. (Picture book. 4-7)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061953385
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication date: 1/17/2012
Pages: 40
Sales rank: 29,570
Age range: 4 - 8 Years
Lexile: AD620L (what's this?)
Product dimensions: 8.76 (w) x 10.32 (h) x 0.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett is the author of several picture books, including Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, Guess Again!, and Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World. He also writes the Brixton Brothers series of mysteries. Mac is the founder of the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, a convenience store for time travelers, and serves on the board of 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center.

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Extra Yarn

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Children's Literature

School Library Journal

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Meet the Author

Mac Barnett

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