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One Book, Two Books, Old Books, New Books.

This sort of absurdity fits with Barnett and Klassen’s previous work. Some subtle humor comes into play, particularly when Annabelle begins knitting for the benefit of inanimate objects, covering mailboxes, houses, and pickup trucks in sweaters. The conclusion will have kids asking the question – why was the box empty for the archduke? Camp #1 will say “well, the yarn just happened to run out”, while Camp #2 will likely infer that the box was empty because it needs Annabelle for the magic to happen. But it is for naught – he finds the box empty and angrily tosses it in the sea, where it eventually returns to Annabelle. When she refuses, the archduke has it stolen. Before long, an archduke arrives and offers Annabelle riches in exchange for the box. She begins to cover her entire cold, drab town in rainbow knitwear – including buildings and trees. But there is extra yarn, so she knits sweaters for others – classmates and teachers and even animals. When Annabelle finds a box filled with multicolored yarn, she does what you might expect – she knits a sweater. Full of beauty and humor, it’s a book that will likely stick with you after the story is done. This concept of making an impact on the world, one small piece at a time is at the core of Extra Yarn. Extra Yarn The multiple award-winning, bestselling team of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen tell an extraordinary tale about a little girl who cocoons her cold, grey town in joy and warmth and brightly coloured yarn This is the story of little Annabelle, who discovers a box of brightly colored yarn on a cold, dark day in a dull, grey town.

But I would imagine there’s a lot of satisfaction in creating an item of clothing out of nothing and a ball of yarn. The extent of my self-crafted wardrobe is limited to ironing letters on a t-shirt, which I promptly threw on stage at a concert (don’t worry, I had another shirt underneath).

I’ve never knitted anything in my life (or is it just “knit”?).

Extra yarn book