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Although this is an original text, its folkloric structure conjures up
echoes of other traditional tales known variously as "Just Enough to
Make a Story," and "I Had a Little Overcoat," (most familiar to today's
children as Simms Taback's Joseph Had a Little Overcoat). The children
of the village love to gather on Babba Zarrah's intricately patterned
blanket to listen to her stories. Gradually, as Babba Zarrah notices
first one villager and then another in need of warm clothing-socks,
scarf, mittens, apron, shawl, cap, blanket, and coat-she unravels the
blanket and re-knits it. The children squeeze ever closer together to
hear her tales until, at last, the blanket disappears. Eventually, the
children-who knew the blanket better than anyone else-are the ones to
solve the mystery of the anonymous gifts. A coda of sorts restarts the
story from the beginning promising an endless cycle of kindness.
Knitters will realize the impossibility of unraveling a small portion of
one project and re-creating the exact same pattern in the new one (the
yarn would not be in the right proportions) but the visual repetition
provides young readers with the clue they need to enjoy the story. White
(or lightly tinted) backgrounds focus attention on the various objects,
though there is a missed opportunity in the failure to show the
children progressive squished onto the ever-shrinking blanket. Most
effective of all is a double-page spread of Babba Zarrah's floral
backside moving though a vast snowscape with only a curious owl to mark
her progress. Other humorous details-the placement of the children's
shoes, a raven caught in a pair of bloomers on the clothes line-will
provide chuckles for the sharp-eyed reader.
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