Extra Yarn was written
by Mac Barnett and illustrated by the extremely talented, Jon Klassen. It is a
Caldecott Honor Book. Published in 2012, Extra Yarn is a tale about a young girl named Annabelle who lives
in a colorless town of black and white. One day she discovers a box with yarn
of every color. She knits herself and her dog beautiful sweaters and amazingly still had
extra yarn. As she walked through the town and went from place to place; people
would make fun of her for being different with her colored sweater. But then
she started to knit sweaters for many people and animals in the town and they
loved it! Most miraculously though, the girl NEVER ran out of yarn! It was special,
magical yarn. Before long, the quaint little town was extremely colorful and
news spread fast about this yarn’s special powers. Then, an archduke arrived on
his ship and tried to buy the yarn from Annabelle but she wouldn't have it! He offered
her millions and she just said, “I won’t sell the yarn.” But that night the archduke
hired three robbers to steal the box of yarn from Annabelle’s house. When the
box made its way back to him, he opened it, and to his surprise there was no
yarn! He cursed Annabelle’s family and said that she would never be happy
again! The archduke threw the box overboard and it safely made its way back to
Annabelle. On the last page, we see Annabelle sitting on a tree that is completely
covered in yarn! Her box is next to her and we can only assume that although
there was no yarn for the archduke; there will always be yarn for Annabelle. Her optimism and hope saved the day!
To be honest, I wasn't a fan of the
ending with the archduke. I thought the story was great before he was
introduced and that the ending could have been when we saw how colorful the
town had become. I didn't feel like the problem with the archduke went well
with the story at that point in the book. Maybe if it was a different type of
character that was a bit more logical and not so fantasy-like. But I have a feeling
that children LOVE the archduke part. I will read this book to my students
this week and see what they think. Perhaps I just don’t have the imagination that I
used to as a child!
The cover of the text is mostly
white with the title spelled out in multicolored yarn. We see Annabelle leaning
against the “T” with her multicolored sweater on and surrounded by animals in
their sweaters. The backgrounds of the pages are purposefully very
monochromatic to emphasize the colors of the yarn. The skin on all the people
is extremely white and they all have dark black hair. The only pages with a
dark background are the ones with the archduke; probably to emphasize that he
is the villain of the story. Although I agree that the illustrations fit very
well with the story, they are not my favorite illustrations. I think I still
have a sour taste in my mouth from the archduke character being thrown into
the story. I just wasn't impressed.
All in all, Extra Yarn is a sweet, creative story about imagination, hope, and optimism. The world can be whatever you want it to be if you are optimistic enough. I will update this post with my students' reactions to this story!
*UPDATE: I read this book to my second graders and they absolutely loved it! ESPECIALLY the ending with the arch duke! They mentioned that they actually wished he was in the story more than just the ending. I had a feeling they would really enjoy it. I think I need to remember there is a difference between reading children's literature as an adult and reading it as a child!
