I am so late to the party with this book but I am so excited to share it with you as Extra Yarn is great read aloud. Guess where I came across it? Yes, my lovely local library. I had a feeling that my family and I would enjoy this read after seeing it recommended so much and my instinct was right.
Written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, this fantastic duo have created a brilliantly, thought provoking tale. We are told of a town that is cold and white and black. In this town there lives a young girl called Annabelle who comes across a box filled with colourful yarn.
Annabelle decides to knit things using the yarn that she has found but each time she makes something she always has extra yarn. Annabelle is such a kind soul and she knits things for everyone and everything. Her class mates, her teacher and even dresses the town making it a beautiful, colourful place to be. The contrast of the black and white town against the colourful knitted covered houses is brilliantly represented by Klassen’s wonderful illustrations.
Annabelle is a fantastic lead character who creates so much change in her world. Her magical box of yarn that keeps on giving is eventually appreciated by so many as no matter how Annabelle is treated, it does not deter her from being kind. However, as some fairy tales have us understand, where there is happiness, sometimes there are people nearby who want a piece of that happiness too and they will do anything to get it. In this story it is a greedy archduke. He wants this precious box of yarn and offers lots of money for it but Annabelle is not selling it. However, the box soon goes missing which the archduke is behind, but it doesn’t bring happiness to him as he would have hoped. Annabelle goes through lots of emotions when her box is stolen and it makes for a great discussion with young readers.
Though the ending of the book may not be to everyones taste, I think this is a story that encourages you to be yourself, to be kind and to not let peoples negativity dull your sparkle.
The illustrations brilliantly depict the mood of the whole story. As the story progresses more and more colour is introduced and it is done so well.
Available to buy from Amazon- click on the image below for further details.
I wonder what great finds we will spot next in our library? Happy reading and bye bye for now.
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