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Laura’s e-letter for educators
If-You-Want-to-Knit-Some-Mittens
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Awards & Honors

If You Want to Knit Some Mittens

Written by Laura Purdie Salas
Illustrated by Angela Matteson
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press, 2021
ISBN: 978-1629795645 32 pages

Description

How do you knit a pair of mittens? The first step is to get a sheep of course! In this playful story, a girl follows 18 steps to knit mittens–from bringing home a sheep to carding, spinning, and dyeing the wool to knitting the mittens. But along the way, her mischievous sheep creates chaos and wins her heart. By wintertime, the girl has sunny-yellow mittens, the sheep has a sunny-yellow hat, and together they’re ready for adventure. This tale of patience, creativity, and friendship is knitted from skeins of humor and love.
1. Get a sheep. Seriously. 2. Keep her warm and well fed through the long, chilly winter. Wish for mittens. Wait for spring.

Journal Reviews

Salas’ text sets a playful tone, and Matteson makes the most of it in the colorful, occasionally madcap illustrations. An appealing picture book about mitten making, with a good deal of merrymaking along the way.
—Booklist
In this delightful book, half “how-to” and half story, a girl shows us the 18 steps to creating mittens…Funny and interesting, this is a winner.
—St. Paul Pioneer Press
Gentle humor keeps the many instructions from seeming too list-like (do not, our narrator advises, give into your sheep’s requests for mohawks or “sheeptails”), and the textured illustrations...are appropriately cozy and soft.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Colorful mittens require 18 steps of preparation, but they are a toasty warm reward…An enjoyable crafty excursion.
—Kirkus Reviews

Videos

Playlist

2 Videos

Downloadable Activities

mittens_craft_maze
Maze
Download
mittens_craft_idioms
Idioms
Download
mittens_craft_coloring
Color
Download
mittens_craft_matching
Match
Download
mittens_craft_thumbnail-1
Craft
Download
yarnie-long-thumbnail
Yarnie - Long
Download
yarnie-short-thumbnail
Yarnie - Short
Download
yarnie-shorter-longer-thumbnail
Longer or Shorter
Download
write-yarnie-thumbnail
My Yarnie
Download
If-You-Want-to-Knit-Some-Mittens-ACTIVITY-KIT
Activity Kit
Download
mittens_craft_how-to-writing
Write
Download
mittens_craft_drawing
Draw
Download

Photo Gallery

34laura-and-mootchie
Research!
12_riding-bike
Art © Angela Matteson
20230308_mittens virtual reading
Ready for a virtual readaloud
20230514_before shearing
Shearing: before
20230514_shearing
Shearing: during
20230514_after shearing
Shearing: after
We Belong Literacy Tutor
The Literacy Tutor
We Belong_Literacy Tutor-a
The Literacy Tutor
2Mittens-Timeline
Publishing timeline
1Mittens-Transformation
Creativity is about transformation
knitting-fail
A knitting fail
Yvonne-Pearson
ryeli with book
Mittens-research

More for Educators or Writers

  • The four Yarnie activity sheets above go with my Adventures in Measurement lesson plan, which I wrote for Patricia Newman’s fabulous LitLinks series.

  • BookPage: Tips for Teachers: On the farm — Hands-on activities for 3 farm-related picture books: If You Want to Knit Some Mittens, The Barn, and Cold Turkey!

  • Watch. Connect. Read. John Schu interviews Laura and illustrator Angela Matteson. “Honestly, who was the first person who looked at a sheep and thought, ‘a cozy, soft scarf, that’s what I’ll make’? But that’s the surprise and joy of making things—that transformation.”

  • Sally’s Bookshelf: A review and a couple of extension craft ideas!

  • Growing Book by Book: A round-up of picture books with a how-to structure

  • Blissfully Bookish: An interview about the writing process. “But over time, Rebecca helped me see that there needed to be more of a relationship in this book. Sheep couldn’t just be a wool-provider. Girl and Sheep had to care about each other.”

  • SLJ: A Fuse 8 Production: The Scourge of Skyward Knitting Needles: A roundup of picture books showing knitting–who got it right? And wrong!

How this Book Got Started

One day I was brainstorming different fun ways to share nonfiction information. I wondered about using sort of an instruction manual format. Here's what I wrote down: "4/9/14: If You Need Mittens… Funny, nonfiction approach. How to Make Mittens. 1) Buy a sheep. Funny, but true. Back matter, basics of knitting.

Poems I've Written

These poems connect to this book in topic, theme, or form—great for text-to-text connections!

sheep-diamante
Sheep-Is-a-Word2

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