The Mitten

My favorite version of The Mitten is by Jim Aylesworth.  I love the context of the grandmother and grandson and the knitted mittens; the details of Barbara McClintock's illustrations are stunning (like the knitted mitten exploding onto the snow into a million yarn pieces).  The story is a classic and so adaptable to many types of tellings. In one of my very first storytimes, I got a giant piece of flannel or fleece fabric and cut out a mitten the size of a small child. I then used our storytime puppets to go inside the mitten and I can still (to this day!) remember seeing those kids respond to the animals being tossed out of my giant, hot-glued mitten.

This version is smaller but still cute. We have this Folkmanis Puppet that comes with an array of forest animal finger puppets. I made a felt mitten and embroidered the edge of both mitten halves for some extra detail. I then hot-glued all of it but one side, and, on that side, I glued velcro tabs so that it can "burst open" and the animals can fall out. Honestly, I love making things like this, but this book can easily stand on its own with no help from me.  Still, it is fun to try it different ways and see if it alters the response of the audience.