Extra Yarn

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett is illustrated by Jon Klassen, the author of I Want My Hat Back and This is Not My Hat (review coming). For fans of Klassen's books, there's a cameo tucked inside.

Annabelle finds a box of yarn. It's the most colorful thing in her dreary village — a place that reminds me of the painting Jagers in de Sneeuw (1565) by Pieter Bruegel. Just imagine that snowy landscape filled with Klassen's characters, being slowly but surely covered in knitted sweaters and blankets and whatnot.

Presented with a box full of yarn, Annabelle sits down and knits herself a sweater. When the box remains full of yarn she knits sweaters for all her friends and family, neighbors, and the local wildlife and pets. When she still has yarn, show more she yarn bombs the village and the forest until everything is colorful.

It's here that her knitting draws the attention of a jealous duke. He steals the box but the yarn isn't there. It doesn't matter if you have the tools and supplies if you don't have the drive to create. show less

I loved this book - I loved the story and the sentiment and the warmth and that the Archduke is foiled and most of all I loved the illustrations, and the way they were made from negative spaces and explored the texture of adding pigment to paper. Excellent book for people who knit, for people who have children (of just about any story-telling age), for people who appreciate good art. a cosy way to start the new year.

Extra Yarn is a simple, but good book. The illustrations drastically enhanced the book. The town was described as “a cold little town, where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from the chimneys” (pg.1). The main character then found a box that was described as “filled with yarn of every color” (pg.1). This concept of the town being black and white and dreary and the yarn being colorful was so important to the main idea of the book, and it showed in the pictures. Consistently throughout the book, everything was black and white except for this never ending colorful yarn. The illustrations did a magnificent job emphasizing the written text. I also liked the repetition. Multiple characters would show more sporadically comment on how Annabelle was soon going to run out of yarn, but she never did. It kept the reader wondering if she really would run out eventually while creating a nice rhythm to the book. After a few times of being questioned, the reader was able to pick up on the pattern. The big message of the book was how one person can single handedly have a positive effect on their community. show less

I love everything about this book. Everything.

Annabelle lives in a cold, colorless town where everything is covered with snow and soot. One day, she comes upon a box of colorful yarn, and knits herself a sweater. When she's finished, she knits one for her dog. When she's finished with that, she still has extra yarn. In fact, Annabelle's colorful yarn seems to be never-ending, and she knits and knits and knits until her town and all the people in it are adorned with Annabelle's colorful creations. Then one day, a rich and powerful archduke offers Annabelle one million, two million... ten million dollars for her box of yarn. When she declines his offer, he takes matters into his own hands and hires robbers to get the box for him. But show more once he's got it, things don't go quite as he'd hoped. What will he do? How will Annabelle fare without her box? You have to go get the book for yourself to discover the sweet ending.

Absolutely charming tale, fabulous illustrations by [a:Jon Klassen|3118934|Jon Klassen|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1320343513p2/3118934.jpg]... this book has the makings and the feel of a modern classic. The f&g will suffice in our house for now, but this is one we will absolutely be purchasing in hardcover for our collection. show less

A creative cumulative tale, a colorful example of a kind of Zeno's paradox or the miracle of the loaves and fishes -- where it seems impossible, but there's always something left over and it's always enough. In this case it's Annabelle's box of yarn which allows her to spread warmth via sweaters in a cold little town on a cold afternoon. It's also an emotional warmth -- the generosity of a home-made gift. In the beginning of the book Nate's jealousy and ridicule of Annabelle is overcome by a sweater. When the remarkable girl and her infinite knitting eventually become famous, a greedy archduke (fond of clothing) attempts to buy the box. Annabelle steadfastly refuses. His subsequent midnight theft of the magic box is bested by the box show more itself -- which proves to be empty in his hands. And his curse on Annabelle and her future happiness, as he throws the box out the window into the sea, is reversed by it simply floating back to her. We don't actually see Annabelle opening the box at the end, so it is left to the reader to decide if the box is really empty or not. Dogs and cats are sprinkled throughout - all in colorful sweaters, of course.

The brown blockcuts on the homemade-looking (scratchy) sepia paper backgrounds are slowly stamped with the warmth of (mainly) red, orange, and yellow pearl/knit stitches. The evil archduke is portrayed in dark browns, while the night he steals the box is washed in dark grey-green, bled to the edges. show less

With very deadpan humor, this isn't going to appeal universally, but I definitely found it to be fun. There's a folkloric aspect to the text with the repetition of the knitting and the box of yarn only working for those with appropriate motives. The art is very typical of Klassen (in fact some familiar characters pop up), but I'm particularly impressed with the soot effect. I think I like that the soot doesn't go away at the end just because the town has been brightened up by Annabelle's sweaters. I also found the choices for when and which sweaters would stay connected by a thread to be thought provoking. I don't have a good guess for how this might work in preschool storytime. My inclination is that it would really work best for an show more older audience than preschool (K-2nd maybe?), but I would love to hear from someone who's tried it with the young ones with success. show less

Bah! The psychopathic killer bear from [b:I Want My Hat Back|11233988|I Want My Hat Back|Jon Klassen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327888784s/11233988.jpg|16160067] makes an appearance and terrifies me once again!

Otherwise, what a great book. One detail in the illustrations I really loved was how in some of the pictures the yarn literally connects the people wearing the sweaters. What a wonderful visual metaphor for how the little girl's art makes the community more of a community.

The ending was a little puzzling to me at first. Did the yarn really float back to the little girl? I suppose it did.